Hearing Damage
by Brandi Golightly
Summary: When a mission in Brussels goes awry, Clint is rendered deaf. Clint struggles with the new development in his life, while Natasha debates as to whether she should reveal something to him, despite his new disability. Possibly slightly out of character? Movie-verse.
1. Chapter 1

**I just can't take a break from writing. Or this fandom for that matter. For those of you that read my _Fix You_ fic, I hope you love this one just as much. Also, this fic won't be as long as _Fix You_ was. Not sure how long, but it definitely won't be 35 chapters. For those of you that are new to my writing, I hope you enjoy! This is my third story for _The Avengers_ and Clintasha. Therefore, I hope you enjoy this one!**

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Natasha heard it before she saw it. She was in the building adjacent to the one her partner was in. She heard the sonic boom of one of his arrows, and the shaking of the walls and the shattering of the window's glass shortly followed. When Natasha was sure the explosion was done, she sprinted to the nearest stairwell and ran down the stairs to reach the main floor. As she rushed down the stairs, a million thoughts were buzzing through her head but there was one that stuck out like a sore thumb.

_Please don't let him be dead._

When she reached the ground floor, she felt the ground begin to shake underneath her, and then soon after, she saw a cloud of dust and debris begin to engulf the street. Things had started to go to hell when the larger pieces of debris began slamming into the building Natasha was currently in. If she stayed, she could very well be injured in some way or form, so she felt her legs carry her to the back of the building.

Natasha burst through the back door and stepped out into an alleyway. The alley wasn't hit as badly as the main street was but it was still pretty difficult to see due to the cloud of dust. The building next door had completely collapsed, and there was no way of knowing if Clint had gotten out or not. In the past when Clint had used his sonic arrows, it temporarily cut all communication within a two mile radius, including the earpiece communicators the two partners used to stay in touch with one another. Every time before they began a mission, they always set up a rendez-vous point to meet up if Clint ever had to use one of his sonic arrows and the communicators were cut for more than a half hour after one of the arrows were used.

For this particular mission in Brussels, they had decided to meet at the Cinquantenaire triumphal arch. It was about a ten minute walk but if Natasha started now, she would be able to make it to the arch in about the same time as Clint. That is, if he made it out of the building.

Natasha needed to move. She knew she had to get moving to make it to the arch but she couldn't move her legs. She couldn't move the rest of her body. She was completely numb from fear, fear that Clint didn't make it out.

She knew she was being stupid when she began walking towards the ruins of the three-story building, and she knew she was being even more stupid when she started pulling debris from the pile. Her knuckles were bloodied and bruised as she continued to dig through the mess. She knew there was no possible way of finding Clint if he was trapped underneath the debris, but she wanted to try. She _needed_ to try. If she found him, there was no guarantee he would be alive, and if she did find him, he would definitely be severely injured.

As she tore away a large piece of a window frame, she heard a moan. Her heart stopped for a second, and then she began to tear away more pieces of debris at a quicker pace. The more she pulled away, the louder the noise became. Eventually, she pulled away a piece of debris and saw Clint's hand, still clutching his bow. She quickly extended her arm forward and wrapped her hand around Clint's to let him know she was here.

"Hang in there Clint," she said, panicked. "For me, Clint. Hang in there for me. Don't do this to me."

She dug around and pulled the pieces of the building away from the pile. When she got closer to revealing his body, she started to pull the debris off of him slower. If anything was broken, she didn't want to injure it even further.

When she finally pulled the last piece of debris from his torso and from around his head, she could see the extent of the damage. There was blood dripping down the side of his head. His upper arm was snapped in half. He probably had several broken ribs. She didn't even want to know how badly injured he was below the waist; just looking at him with the few injuries she could currently see absolutely hurt her beyond belief.

"Clint," she said, reaching forward and touching her hand to Clint's cheek. Clint's eyes fluttered open but it looked like he was having trouble focusing. "Clint, stay with me, okay? Don't leave me."

At that moment, the communicator in Natasha's ear came back to life with the crackle of static. She switched the frequency so that she could contact someone from SHIELD's base. When Agent Hill had responded, Natasha – who never really lost control of her emotions – was in full-blown panic mode.

"Agent Hill, I need an extraction immediately, and I need the med team too. Haweye is in dire need of medical attention," Natasha said, her voice shaking.

"Give me a second to pinpoint your location and I'll dispatch the extraction team," Agent Hill said. Natasha curled her fingers over Clint's again and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"They're coming Clint. They're coming. Just stay with me until then."

"The extraction team has been dispatched," Agent Hill's voice said from the earpiece. "Black Widow, I need you to get your emotions in check and stay calm."

Natasha hadn't realized how heavily she had been breathing; she was practically hyperventilating. She calmed herself, her breathing reaching a normal pace, and she kept her eyes trained on Clint to make sure that he himself was still breathing. Within a couple minutes, the extraction team had arrived and secured the area surrounding the collapsed building. They pulled Natasha away from the rubble and began working on prying Clint from the rest of the debris.

The med team practically dragged Natasha to get checked out for any injuries; she constantly threatened them and insisted she was okay. However, they weren't going to take any chances and they checked her over for any injuries.

Despite being dragged away from Clint, she still had a perfect view of the team trying to wrest away the pieces of the building. Her eyes were focused on Clint. She could barely see the top of his head, but she could see him. From where she was sitting, she couldn't tell if he was still conscious or not, and she didn't even want to think about whether he was still alive or not.

When the last piece of debris was pulled off of Clint's leg, he let out a pained groan. Natasha pushed her way through the extraction team and knelt down next to Clint. She brushed some pieces of hair out of his face as he frantically looked around at the people surrounding him.

"Clint, you're going to be okay. Just stay calm," Natasha said comfortingly.

The medical team brought over a stretcher and some other medical equipment so that they could work on Clint. They carefully hoisted him onto the stretcher and then began to poke and prod him to check his stats. Natasha never left his side, and growled at any med team member who asked her to move. When they finally placed all of the braces on the limbs that needed them and slipped on an oxygen mask to keep him breathing, they carried him to the edge of the alley where a helicopter awaited to transport him to the SHIELD helicarrier. As soon as they loaded him into the helicopter, Natasha jumped in right after him and held his hand as they lifted off and headed for the helicarrier.

* * *

As soon as they touched down on the helicarrier, the medical team had rushed Clint to the medical wing. Natasha wanted to go with him but two SHIELD employees held her back. She would have fought back if she wasn't physically and emotionally exhausted.

"He's going to be okay, _right_?" she said through clenched teeth.

"They're going to do everything they can," one of the medical personnel said.

"If you let him die, you are all on my hit list," she said, and then turned on her heel to take a seat on one of the chairs that lined the hall.

Natasha didn't move far from where she was stationed. For the majority of the time that Clint was in surgery, Natasha either bounced her leg up and down while she was seated in the chair or paced the floor in anxiousness. The wait was killing her and no one seemed to be able to give her new information on Clint's condition.

During the third hour, Director Fury marched through the medical bay and stood in front of Natasha. She had been ordered to report for debriefing as soon as she touched down on the helicarrier, but had ignored the order to make sure that Clint was okay. She would continue to ignore this order until she got some sort of information on Clint's condition. But despite Director Fury's constant badgering, the Black Widow ignored his requests and stayed positioned at her seat.

By the fifth hour, one of Clint's doctors came waltzing through the doors to tell Natasha that his surgeries were a success. The doctor told Natasha that he was stable but unconscious at the moment and would be sedated for several more hours until his body is able to heal itself enough on its own. From the building's collapse, Clint had a broken arm, a broken leg, several cracked ribs, a collapsed lung, and a concussion. However, Natasha was relieved. It was nothing that he hadn't gone through before. It was a lot that he would have to suffer through all at once, but he would recover in time.

"Can I see him? I know he's sedated but can I just sit by his bed?" Natasha asked urgently.

The doctor nodded and led her through the doors to the rooms that kept the injured SHIELD employees and agents under surveillance. The doctor led Natasha to the end of the hall where Clint's room was. The doctor motioned for Natasha to step in, and so she did.

She'd seen him badly injured before, but this time, it just hurt a little bit to see him laying in the bed hooked up to tubes and wires and practically in pieces. Natasha pulled a chair up next to the side of his bed and took his hand into hers. There was no telling when he'd wake because the doctor had made it very clear that he was pretty drugged up, but she'd sit there and wait until he did.

At one point, Natasha started to drift off to sleep herself. She knew that the position she was in on the chair was going to either mess up her back or her neck or both, but she would suffer through it just to wait until Clint woke up.

She wasn't sure how long she was asleep until she felt a tug on her hand that ripped her out of her hibernation. She blearily rubbed an eye and focused to find that Clint had woken up. He looked confused, as if he didn't remember what had happened, but Natasha rose from her chair and ran her fingers over his jaw line comfortingly.

"Hey, how do you feel?" Natasha asked.

Clint blinked and then shook his head.

"Do you need more pain meds? I'll call a nurse in here," Natasha said as she turned to walk towards the door, but Clint grabbed her by the hand. She turned back around and saw Clint's face stricken with panic.

"Clint, what? What's wrong?" Natasha said as calmly as she possibly could.

"I…" Clint said, his throat scratchy from having not used it in a while.

"You need water. I'll get it." Natasha turned to leave again, but Clint grabbed her by the hand to pull her back. She turned back around just in time to see him wince from exerting himself to keep her in the room.

"Don't move you dumbass," she said.

"Tasha," he mumbled.

"Clint, what? You're really starting to concern me."

"I…I can't hear you," he said.

"Stop fucking around," Natasha said angrily.

"What did you say?" Clint asked.

Natasha leaned down to put her lips right by Clint's right ear. She slipped her hand into his and then said, "If you can hear me, squeeze my hand."

She waited for a couple of seconds, but there was no pressure on her hand. Clint didn't squeeze her hand. Natasha pulled away from him with a barely audible gasp, and then got off of the bed to head out the door to find a doctor.

Clint couldn't hear, and Natasha hoped that it was just temporary. Her frantic behavior in the field wasn't just for nothing. Of all the times she needed to talk to Clint he goes and loses his hearing. She needed to talk to him. Before the mission, she had told him that what she needed to talk to him about could wait until afterwards but of course, his hearing was shot. She needed to talk to him and she needed him to listen because it just wouldn't have the same effect if he was in complete silence.

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**Uh oh, poor Clint! I've read several fics about Clint losing his hearing so I thought I'd put my spin on it as well. I hope the first chapter intrigued you enough to stick around!**

**For those of you that signed up for author alerts from reading my _Fix You_ fic, if there is a one-shot sequel you would like me to write, send me a prompt to my inbox and I'll see what I can do. Also, the _Love Me If You Dare_ fic might be a while. As many times as I've seen _Love Me If You Dare_, I need to study it a little more to get a good feel for what I want to do for Clint and Natasha's _Love Me If You Dare_ story. But it will be coming up.**

**Okay, so like I said, I hope you guys enjoyed this enough to stick around. Please review! Let me know if this is worth continuing haha.**


	2. Chapter 2

**First off, thank you so much for all the reviews! It makes me happy to know that a lot of you are interested in this story. This update is a little shorter than chapters I've written before but I figured I should upload something instead of nothing. But enjoy!**

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When Natasha returned with a doctor and several nurses in tow, Clint was in a complete panic. For as long as Natasha had known Clint, she had never seen him panic. The fear in his eyes was obvious, and for Natasha, it absolutely scared her.

She watched from the corner of his room as the doctor and nurses poked and prodded him again and again, irritating him and sending his heart racing. She bit her lip out of nervousness as she continued to watch him panic. There was nothing she could do. He was surrounded by several medical personnel and they would definitely push her away if she tried to stand by his bedside. Therefore, she stood in the corner and watched miserably as Clint looked back and forth in shock.

The doctor and nurses finished and beckoned for Natasha to follow. She bowed her head and kept her eyes trained on the floor as she exited the room. The nurses dispersed but the doctor stood slightly to the left of Clint's room, out of Clint's sight.

"So what's wrong with him?" Natasha said, crossing her arms.

"After examining him, it does seem that he has lost his hearing. Until we run more tests, there's no way of knowing if it's permanent or temporary."

"Well, run the tests _now_," Natasha snapped. "In case you didn't notice, he's panicking in there. He's a marksman. He needs to be able to hear."

The doctor nodded in response, but didn't say anything. It most likely had something to do with the fact that he didn't want to anger the Black Widow.

"W-we'll get r-right on that," the doctor stuttered and then swiftly walked away. Natasha glared at the doctor's back as he walked away and didn't shift her focus until he disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall. She stood outside of Clint's room for a couple more minutes before marching down the hall to the nurse's station to swipe a pen and pad of paper. Then, she turned on her heel to return to Clint's room.

Stepping foot into the room again, Natasha noticed the irritated look on Clint's face. She crossed the room and pulled the chair up to his bedside once again.

"Nat, what's going on?" he said, his voice shaking.

Natasha began to scribble on the paper and when she finished, she turned the pad of paper so that Clint could read it.

_They're going to run some tests._

"W-well, what does that mean?" Clint asked.

Natasha scribbled on the paper and then turned it towards Clint again. _They're going to find out if it's temporary or permanent._

"Nat, this can't be permanent. This _can't_ be permanent," he begged.

_I know_, she wrote on the paper, _but they'll do everything to help you._

Clint sighed and relaxed against the pillows. There was nothing worse than being deemed deaf. As a marksman, he needed all senses to be in tip top shape. But he depended on his hearing the most. He had fantastic reflexes. If someone were to sneak up on him, he could easily hear them and react as quickly as possible. Without his hearing, he'd be at a major disadvantage.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Natasha bury her face in her hands. He had almost forgotten they were supposed to talk following the mission but obviously his stupidity had gotten in the way. He knew what he was doing when he shot the sonic arrow and he knew it was a stupid choice. But it was either that or be killed, so he chose to shoot one of the sonic arrows at a close target as opposed to a far away target, which is what they were intended for.

Clint turned his head towards Natasha so that he could face her, but her head was still buried in her hands.

"Tasha, we were supposed to talk after the mission," he stated.

Natasha raised her head from her hands and shook her head. Picking up the pen, she started scribbling on the pad of paper and then turned the pad so that it was facing Clint.

_Now is __not__ the time_, it read.

"You can tell me, or write it down, I guess. I can still read and see you know," he said.

She picked up the pad of paper and wrote on it again. _You need your rest. We can talk about it later_, the message read.

Clint shook his head. "What was it that you wanted to talk about? Might as well get it out of the way before I get knocked out again from all the drugs."

There was more scribbling on the pad of paper, and he watched as she looked it over before revealing the message to him. _I don't want to talk about it with you in this condition_, it read.

"_What_ exactly can't you say to me now that you can't say to me when I'm perfectly normal?" Clint growled. He was getting frustrated now. Natasha was a really private person, but with Clint, he knew absolutely everything about her. They didn't hide things from each other, and he was particularly frustrated right now since she wouldn't share what she deemed "really important" before the mission.

More scribbling. _I want to __tell__ you, not write it to you_, it read.

Clint relaxed back against the pillows and sighed.

"What if it _doesn't_ come back?" he said, his voice shaking.

Clint was staring at the ceiling when he felt Natasha tap his arm. He turned his head towards her and found another message written on the pad of paper. _If it doesn't_, the message read, _I'm sure SHIELD will find some way to fix it. Either surgically or with hearing aids._

"Don't mention those!" Clint snarled. Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger and then scribbled on the notepad again, turning it towards Clint when she was finished so he could read the message. _I don't know what else they could do then, Clint_.

Clint squeezed his eyes shut with a little more force than usual and then opened them with a groan.

"Just go then Nat," he growled, "and get a nurse on your way out. I think I need more pain meds."

Natasha's shoulders slumped as she got out of the chair, taking the pen and paper with her. As she exited the room, she took one look back at Clint – seething as he stared at the ceiling – and sighed. She understood his frustration. If his hearing didn't come back, everyone at SHIELD and all of the Avengers would view him as weak. Even if the hearing loss was temporary, it would still make people view him as a weakling.

Dragging her feet down the hall, she realized that she also contributed to his frustration. She had something important to tell him, but he had to understand that he was in no condition at the moment for a serious conversation. And there was no way she was going to write it out for him. If she did, she'd be writing him a novel.

Approaching the nurse's station, she pointed down the hall towards Clint's room and mumbled incoherently about him needing more pain medication. The motherly nurse nodded – grabbing his chart and a couple supplies from a nearby cart – then swiftly walked down the hall towards Clint's room.

Natasha watched as the nurse disappeared into Clint's room and then trudged out of the medical wing to find Fury for debriefing before he ripped her head off.

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**Poor Clint. It's definitely a permanent thing but Clint doesn't know that yet. He'll find out in the next chapter. And poor Natasha too. Whatever she needs to tell Clint, she's definitely struggling with it too. That, and Clint's current condition.**

**Anyways, here is my generic thank you that I always put at the end of _Fix You_. Thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Let me know what you guys think of this chapter! I always appreciate what you guys have to say!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So Clint finds out he won't get his hearing back in this chapter, and he and Natasha finally talk! Enjoy!**

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A couple hours later, the doctors at the SHIELD base started running tests on one of their best assassins. It was mostly done while Clint was knocked out from the meds when they ran the tests. Despite his many injuries, many of the doctors feared that he could still hurt them if they ran the tests on him while he was awake.

Not much later, the doctors discovered that Clint wouldn't regain his hearing and about 80% of it was lost. For the time being, he would have to be fitted for hearing aids until SHIELD could find some sort of cure for their best marksman. But since Clint worked for SHIELD, they would be able to find him the most inconspicuous devices to help him hear. However, despite SHIELD doing everything under the sun to accommodate Clint, he was incredibly stubborn.

Natasha hadn't gone back to see Clint since he kicked her out of his room. She had been hiding in her room when Fury had come to tell her Clint's diagnosis. It had been 24 hours since she'd seen him. She wasn't sure if he'd want her to come back, and she wouldn't go see him unless he wanted her there.

Fury also told her that Clint would be discharged from the medical wing within 48 hours. Despite his many injuries, he'd always been a fast healer, and he was currently doing well enough that they could discharge him early.

"So, why are you telling me then?" Natasha snapped at the one-eyed director when he told her this information.

"It is my understanding that you and Agent Barton are not only partners, but very close friends, and I would have thought you of all people would like to know this information," Fury deadpanned.

"He doesn't want me there, so it doesn't matter to me when he gets discharged," Natasha said, folding her arms across her chest. Director Fury glared at Natasha for a few seconds before turning on his heel and walking out of her room, shutting her door behind him with a _bang_.

Sure, Natasha was being inconsiderate and acting like a child, but there was nothing she could do to help Clint now. She didn't want him to take his frustration out on her. And sure, there was reason for him to take his frustration out on her because she wouldn't talk to him. However, he'd be the one doing the talking while Natasha would be furiously scribbling across a pad of a paper. And that's only if SHIELD hadn't managed to fit him with a pair of hearing aids yet.

Natasha went about her days like she usually did for the next two days. Every morning, she got up, got a cup of coffee, and then headed to the gym for a workout. Every so often her focus would shift to Clint. How was he doing? Was he still angry? Did he want her around?

It was about noon on the second day when Steve popped his head into the gym to inform Natasha of Clint's discharge. She was furiously beating the shit out of a punching bag and wasn't quite focused on Steve. When Steve finally got Natasha's attention, she snapped at him and Steve looked taken aback by it.

"I'm sorry Steve," she said, sighing. "I really don't want to talk about this."

Steve nodded. "Well, he will be discharged in two hours if you'd like to stop by. He's actually been asking for you." With that, Steve slipped out of the gym, leaving Natasha alone in the humid room.

* * *

It was a struggle for Clint to get from the bed to the wheelchair the medical personnel were providing for him. Just because he was being discharged today didn't mean he could do whatever he wanted. He had been given strict orders to stay in bed and to not overexert himself if he had to get out of bed for any reason.

"Banner, I can do it!" Clint snapped when Bruce had reached out a hand to help Clint. It took a little bit but Clint had managed to get himself settled into the chair.

"Ready?" Bruce asked. Clint nodded. It was actually strange being able to hear again. The silence had been aggravating, but after not having heard any sort of noise for a couple days, it was weird to have it incorporated back into his life again. He reached up to touch the small devices in his ears. They were there and they were as small and inconspicuous as SHIELD could manage to develop for Clint, but just knowing that they were there made Clint feel embarrassed.

Bruce got behind the chair and pushed Clint out of the room. They went down the hall and rounded the corner, only to come face-to-face with the Black Widow's piercing green eyes. She looked like she had just come from the gym with her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail and her red cheeks.

"I'm going to leave you two alone," Bruce mumbled as he slipped by the Black Widow, leaving Clint in the middle of the hallway. They stood in the middle of the hallway in silence for a couple minutes before Natasha pulled him by a row of chairs that lined the hallway and she sat down to face him.

"You look a lot better than when I last saw you," she muttered.

Clint broke away from her gaze and looked at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck in nervousness. "Yeah, sorry about that," he said. "I didn't mean to snap at you."

"You were angry and frustrated," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't blame you."

They sat in silence for a couple more minutes before Natasha reached up to touch one of Clint's ears, to which Clint instinctively flinched.

"Don't touch them!" he snapped.

"Are they even there?" she asked.

"Yes, just…drop it, okay?" he huffed.

"I mean seriously, are they even there? I can't even see them," Natasha stated.

"Stop trying to make me feel better," Clint mumbled.

"Clint, I'm not trying to make you feel better. I honestly cannot see them. And I don't understand why you're getting your panties in a bunch. You have far worse problems going on than being embarrassed over hearing aids," she scoffed.

"Please don't mention them."

"It's going to take some getting used to Clint, but at least you can hear – ."

"Yeah, but not as sharply as I used to," Clint interjected.

Natasha sighed. "I'm trying to find the good in all of this. You're alive. Your injuries are going to heal in no time since both your arm and leg were clean breaks. Most importantly, you can hear. Not on your own anymore, but you can _hear_."

"Yeah and how long do you think it'll take Fury to realize that my senses aren't what they used to be? How long do you think it'll take him to realize that his best marksman can't react as quickly as he used to because one of his senses is off?"

"Clint, you have excellent aim. Your hearing has nothing to do with it," Natasha reassured him.

"I rely on all of my senses when I work. With my hearing not as strong as it used to be, I'm going to lose a bit of my talent."

"That's absolutely ridiculous Clint, and stop thinking like this! Everything is going to be fine. We're going to be okay."

"_We_?" he said with much emphasis. "Is this what you wanted to talk about? We've talked about this so many times Natasha and every single time you've shot me down! You don't want me. I know you don't."

"That's not true," she mumbled inaudibly, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I hurt the Black Widow's feelings? Actually, that can't be possible because the Black Widow doesn't _have_ feelings but what about _my_ feelings Natasha? I haven't been brainwashed like you, so I still have feelings.

"But you don't care, do you? Every single time I've gotten attached to you when we've played husband and wife on a mission, you pushed me away as soon as we would finish."

"Clint - ," she tried to stop him, but he steamrolled through.

"Every time we would have sex, you viewed it as purely a 'no strings attached' sort of thing while I have always found myself completely attracted to you."

"Clint."

"Yes, I'm attracted to you. I like you. Hell, I love you. Yes, I love you! I love the Black Widow, but there's no way she'll ever love me because she doesn't have feelings!"

"Clint!" she practically screamed.

"What!" he said angrily.

"I'm pregnant."

* * *

**And I will leave you with that haha. I'm off to see _The Dark Knight Rises_ at midnight so I figured I'd update this before I went.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. So, review away! Let me know what you think of Clint and Natasha's little chat!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay first off, I just want to say how sad and tragic it is with what happened at that Colorado theater at that midnight showing of _The Dark Knight Rises_. It's sad that in today's society that we can't even go to the movies anymore without fearing for our lives. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and their families. As for actually going to see the movie if you haven't seen it already, I really hope this doesn't keep you from going to see it. This event was extremely tragic but don't let it spoil your movie-going experience. The film was absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend it.**

**Anyways, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

Clint stared at Natasha in disbelief. A million thoughts ran through his head as he thought it over and over. He couldn't remember the last time they slept together. Whether that was due to the concussion or it had been a couple months, he wasn't sure, but either way, he didn't believe that what she had just told him was true.

"You're messing with me," Clint finally said.

"No, I'm not. There's no doubt about it," she deadpanned.

Clint shook his head. "I'm dreaming. I'm still knocked out in the hospital bed from the pain meds. There's no way this is real," he mumbled.

"It's real Clint. I'm pregnant and you're the father," she said.

Clint hesitated to answer. The Black Widow, pregnant, and Hawkeye is the father. Clint was trying to wrap that around his head but he couldn't quite believe it.

"How long?" Clint muttered.

"About three weeks," she stated simply.

That's when Clint started to think about where they were three weeks ago. They had been finishing up a mission in London when a torrential downpour had started. There was no way they would be able to finish the mission in the weather conditions so they retired to the hotel where they began to drink a little too much. When they awoke a couple hours later – tired and hung over – they had realized what they had done.

"So…so what are we going to do?" Clint asked.

"Nothing. _We_ are going to do nothing. I'm going to put things back to normal, I'm going to terminate the pregnancy, and we can go on living our lives as assassins. The way it's supposed to be," Natasha said.

"What? No, Tasha. You can't do that!"

"Yes I can. It would never work."

"Then why would you tell me this?" he asked. Of all the things for her to tell him, it had to be this, and then she went and ripped the rug out from underneath him just like she always did.

"You know why I think you told me this? I think that you want it, you want to keep it, but you're scared - ."

"I don't get scared," Natasha interjected.

"You're scared to do it alone," Clint pressed on. "You were scared you were going to lose me in Brussels and you thought you would be alone in this. Now, you want to be rid of it because if _we_ have this baby, and something was to happen to me in the future, you'd be alone in it.

"You're scared to be alone, Natasha, but you won't be alone," Clint said.

"Clint, don't be ridiculous," Natasha said. "And you of all people shouldn't talk. You were just freaking out five minutes ago over your hearing loss."

"Okay, so I was being a little bit of a baby a couple minutes ago but now…" he trailed off. "Now, you just put things into perspective for me."

"Clint, we can't do this. We can't be parents. I have no idea how to be a mother and you have no idea how to be a father - ."

"That's the thing about first-time parents. It's their _first time_ being parents. They have no idea what they're doing," Clint reassured her.

"Clint, we still can't do this. It would be a target. It would be our weakness, not mention that Fury _would not_ be pleased about it," she said.

Clint took Natasha's face in both of his hands, wincing at the pain in his arm from the break. "I'm not afraid of Fury, and we work for SHIELD. They could provide our kid with the best protection on the face of the planet. And our kid would have, quite possibly, the most hostile mom if someone were to ever try to hurt them."

Natasha smirked at Clint's comment, and that was about all he was going to get from her. Even for Clint, it was a rare occurrence to get a smile out of the Black Widow.

Natasha took a deep breath and then let it out. "Okay," she said.

"Okay? Okay what?" Clint asked.

"We can do this," she said. "We'll have this baby but you have to promise me something."

"Anything," Clint said.

"You pull this shit on me again, there's no more us. I can't be worrying about a kid _and _you," she demanded.

"We've got a deal."

* * *

After telling Clint that she was pregnant, they both sort of fell into sleeping in the same bed with one another. It wasn't for a romantic reason, at least not in the beginning. Natasha was still worried about Clint's injuries from the mission and Clint wanted to keep an eye on Natasha to make sure everything went well in her pregnancy. But as Clint healed and Natasha's stomach started to grow, they sort of started to fall into a romance.

When Natasha told Fury that she was with child, he was angry. Then when she told Fury that Clint was the father, she was surprised he didn't have a heart attack. However, Fury understood that while Natasha wasn't going to abort the pregnancy, he couldn't have her out in the field in her condition. Therefore, Fury ordered her to stay on base and give orders to agents in the field.

Natasha wasn't happy about the decision, but she figured if she was getting herself into this mess, she was going to have to accept the consequences. Clint had been the one to go to Fury ahead of his decision to convince him that having Natasha in the field was not very wise. As the father, Clint didn't want Natasha or his child in harm's way.

Despite things going slightly well between Natasha and Clint in the romance department, Clint was still being stubborn as usual when it came to his hearing aids. He was still incredibly embarrassed to wear them around the other Avengers, especially Tony. He felt as if the other Avengers would judge him for having a weakness.

For the first couple weeks following the mission, Clint would forget to put the hearing aids back in. They were extremely small so that may be why he would forget to put them in, but for the most part, he was just being unreasonable. However, once Clint realized that he had forgotten to put them in, he would try to go about his day as usual, and he would cross his fingers in hopes that no one would talk to him.

However, Natasha would always notice. Clint was always out of bed before her; being pregnant had been making her extremely exhausted. When she would roll over in bed, the first thing she would notice on the bedside table were the tiny hearing aids that Clint had neglected to put in. She would then push herself out of bed, grab the hearing aids, and then track down Clint so she could persuade him to put them in. He would always say no, but Natasha would press on and ultimately get him to put them in.

One morning, in particular, when Clint didn't put his hearing aids in and Natasha was a little past the four month mark in her pregnancy, she woke up in the morning to an empty bed. Clint was up before her and his hearing aids were sitting on the bedside table as usual. Natasha rolled out of bed with some effort and padded out of their room to find Clint.

She found him in the gym, working on his aim. The weapons department at SHIELD had been developing new arrows for Clint, but Natasha had ordered him to wait until they were properly tested. When he would protest, Natasha would remind him that if he screwed up, they were done.

She knew better than to sneak up on him while he was working out, but without his hearing aids in, she had no other choice. When he was relatively calm, she rested a hand on his shoulder and Clint instinctively whipped around to defend himself. Despite being a little over four months pregnant, Natasha still had good defense skills, and she quickly snatched the bow and arrow out of Clint's hands and turned the weapon on him.

"Tasha," Clint said breathlessly, "You know better than to sneak up on me."

"Really don't have a choice when you forgot to put these in," she said, holding out the ear devices. She wasn't quite sure why she said anything because it wasn't like he could hear her anyways, but she still said it to convey the message.

Clint hung his head once she held out her hand containing the devices. He still wasn't in the habit of putting them in once he got up in the morning. Even if it had been months since he'd officially lost his hearing. He snatched them out of her hand and quickly put them in, turning them up so that he could hear her talk.

"I think we may have to reconsider that deal we made," Natasha teased.

"What? Why?" Clint asked, startled by her statement.

Natasha smirked. "How are we even supposed to communicate anything in this relationship if you're in total silence all the time?"

Natasha had a point. There would be no form of communication in their relationship if he was at a disadvantage. Just a couple minutes before he could have seriously hurt her since he didn't hear her coming in.

"Sorry Nat," he said, looking down at the floor.

"It's okay," she said. "I know it is hard Clint, but it's been a few months. You're just being stubborn now."

Clint kept his eyes focused on the floor. "It makes me feel so weak."

"And _not_ having your hearing aids in _won't _make you weak? That makes you ten times more vulnerable," Natasha countered.

Clint sighed. "I guess so."

"Besides, if you're not wearing your hearing aids, how would I be able to tell you that your kid is kicking?"

"Point to your stomach?" Clint suggested.

At that moment, Natasha pointed to her stomach and Clint's eyes widened.

"Is it…is it kicking _now_?" Clint asked excitedly.

Natasha nodded and then Clint closed the distance between him and her. He rested his hand on her burgeoning stomach and felt his child kick him right in the palm.

Clint chuckled. "Well, it's definitely our kid in there." Then Clint leaned in and kissed Natasha full on the lips. Despite having fallen into a relationship within the past few months, they very rarely kissed. However, for this moment, Clint didn't care. They were the only ones in the gym and this moment was just for the two of them.

They had kissed before, but never like this. They had kissed for show before as part of being undercover. They'd kissed before due to being in the heat of the moment during sex. However, not once had they ever kissed in a romantic sense.

When Clint pulled away from Natasha, she looked like she was glowing. It could have been due to that whole "pregnancy glow" because she was carrying his child. But he hoped it was because that was something she had never experienced before.

"Umm, so…" she said, blushing. "Breakfast? Do you want breakfast? Pepper said she was going to make waffles from scratch this morning."

"Yeah, I'll meet you there, okay?" he said. He watched as she disappeared out of the room, her stride not affected one bit yet by her pregnancy. Clint looked at his watch and saw that it wasn't even 10:00, and yet, he felt like he accomplished so much. Not only had he really started working on his aim, but he felt his child kick. But most importantly, Clint accomplished such a rare feat. He made the Black Widow blush.

* * *

**Lots and lots of fluff! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of this chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't update the past two days. I worked 8-4 both days and then I got into an argument with my dad so I have not been in the best mood. But to make up for it, this chapter is slightly longer than the last few have been. Enjoy!**

* * *

Clint had started to get into the habit of putting his hearing aids in after that day in the gym when he first felt his child kick. Feeling his child kick and his hearing had no correlation whatsoever, but he realized that he didn't want to miss anything else important, including the ultrasound. Even though Fury was slightly supportive of Natasha's pregnancy, there was still much for her to do at the SHIELD base that required her assistance that put off the first ultrasound. When Natasha hit the five month mark, Fury finally gave her a day off for her and Clint to visit the medical wing of the SHIELD base for the first ultrasound.

They sat in the room – Natasha sitting upright on the examination table and Clint in a chair by Natasha's side – and waited for the doctor to enter the room. Natasha had to admit that she was happy that Clint had gotten into the habit of putting his hearing aids on in the morning. She would never admit it out loud, but she wanted Clint to hear their child's heartbeat. It was an important part in not just her pregnancy, but their relationship.

Being pregnant had softened the Black Widow, but only on the inside. She would never admit the thoughts she had been thinking as of recently. She had been giddy to see her child for the first time. She wanted to hear its heartbeat. Deep, deep down, she even wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl but she wanted to keep it a secret until she delivered.

Most importantly, her feelings for Clint had changed. She had always cared for him. She cared whether he came back from a mission dead or alive. She cared about watching his back when they were in the field together. She cared about their friendship. However, obviously, since the mission in Brussels, things had changed between them. He wasn't a needy person, but he definitely needed someone to lean on after he experienced his life-changing dilemma. Toss in her pregnancy, and feelings had begun to manifest themselves.

Natasha was yanked out of her thoughts when the door to their examination room squelched open and the doctor walked in. He introduced himself as Dr. Cooper and then immediately launched into a questionnaire concerning Natasha's pregnancy so far. As Dr. Cooper rattled off the series of questions, Natasha answered bluntly with either a yes or no unless the question required her to provide a more complex answer than that.

When Dr. Cooper finished his interrogation, he asked Natasha to relax back onto the table and lift up her shirt. Dr. Cooper fired up the ultrasound and then squeezed a blue gel onto Natasha's bulging abdomen. Dr. Cooper rubbed the device around on Natasha's stomach, trying to locate the image of the child growing inside of her.

Neither Natasha nor Clint were paying attention to the screen; Natasha's eyes were fixed on the ceiling while Clint had his eyes trained on the floor. When they heard the soft flutter of their child's heartbeat, they immediately shifted their focus to the screen where they saw the blurry image of their child.

"That's the head and its legs. And it looks like he or she is waving to us," Dr. Cooper said, pointing to the screen.

"Yeah, it does," Natasha muttered.

Dr. Cooper pressed a button on the machine and it immediately printed out a picture. The doctor handed it to Natasha, in which she held it up to her face so she could examine it further. Currently, this little being was inside of her and she smiled. She smiled an actual genuine smile.

"You're at the stage in your pregnancy where we can tell if it's a boy or a girl. Would you like to know?" Dr. Cooper asked, cleaning off the device of the blue goo.

Natasha turned her head to face Clint. He looked at her like he was eager, like he wanted to know the sex right then and there. However, Natasha wanted to be in the dark about her kid.

"I don't want to know yet," Natasha said, "but if you want to know, you and the doctor have to leave the room."

Clint nodded then turned back to Dr. Cooper. "I think I'll pass," Clint said. "I'll wait to find out."

Dr. Cooper wrapped up the appointment by scheduling another appointment for Natasha in a couple of weeks and then gave her some quick instructions on staying healthy during the pregnancy. Dr. Cooper wrapped up the appointment by bidding them goodbye and then slipped out of the room, leaving Clint and Natasha by themselves.

"I can't believe I just heard our kid's heartbeat," Clint muttered.

"See what wonders you will hear with those fantastic little devices in your ears?" Natasha teased. She grabbed a couple of the wipes from the table next to the examination table and started wiping the blue gel off of her stomach. When she finished, she pulled her shirt back down and discarded the wipes into the trash can. She slid off of the table with ease – Clint steadying her when she got to her feet – and smiled at Clint.

Clint was taken aback, seeing as he'd never seen the Black Widow smile. This was the first time he'd ever seen it happen. Being pregnant was definitely changing her.

"I'm ready to go if you are," she stated. Clint nodded, holding the door open for her as she stepped out, and then followed her down the hall and out of the medical wing.

* * *

Around 4:30, Natasha and Clint left the SHIELD base and piled into a black town car bound for the Avengers Tower. Formerly Stark Tower, the Avengers Tower was where all of the Avengers congregated following the occasional mission. However, tonight, Pepper would be throwing a dinner party for Clint and Natasha in celebration of Natasha's pregnancy.

Telling the rest of the Avengers that Natasha and Clint were expecting a child together hadn't been easy. While Pepper was thoroughly happy and excited for them, Tony had nearly passed out from giddiness. Apparently he had suspected for a while now that Clint and Natasha had been sleeping together and figured it was only a matter of time until Clint knocked up Natasha. Both Steve and Bruce awarded Clint and Natasha with simple congratulations while Thor insisted that a celebration was in order. That's where Pepper came in, and insisted that Thor was right.

Clint and Natasha had revealed Natasha's pregnancy to the Avengers not much after they had told Fury. Pepper had been planning this celebratory dinner ever since they had revealed Natasha's pregnancy, but both Clint and Natasha had been so busy at the SHIELD base that they both practically had no free time. However, when Clint had let it slip to Pepper that they would be free following the first ultrasound appointment, Pepper had demanded that they join her and Tony, as well as the rest of the Avengers, at the tower for dinner.

They sat in silence in the car ride over to the tower, neither one of them anticipating what the evening had in store. Alone, with the exception of Tony, each of the Avengers was great to be around. However, get them all together and they were a rambunctious group and were almost unbearable to be around.

When the car pulled up to the curb outside of the tower, the driver got out to open the door for Natasha, and Clint slid out of the car behind her. They stepped into the lobby of the Avengers Tower and rode the elevator up to the main penthouse. As the elevator shot up through the building, the electronic butler, JARVIS, greeted Natasha and Clint, and they both returned the gesture.

The elevator pinged to signal that they had arrived on their designated floor, and they heard JARVIS announce their arrival. They stepped out of the elevator and were greeted by a giddy Pepper. She hugged Clint and then Natasha and then guided them into the sitting area where the rest of the Avengers were seated.

"Good evening friends!" Thor was the first to say. The rest of the Avengers rattled off a round of greetings and Natasha and Clint returned the gesture.

"Ah! BlackHawk has arrived!" Tony announced, walking out from behind the bar in the corner. Natasha and Clint couldn't tell if Tony was drunk or not, but he sidled up to them and figured that he was perfectly sober.

"The hell did you just call us?" Clint asked, arching one of his eyebrows.

"BlackHawk. It's a combination of Black Widow and Hawkeye. You know, like in Hollywood they have Brangelina and Bennifer. I have officially deemed you two BlackHawk," Tony announced.

Clint shook his head and Natasha let out a strange growl that let Tony know she was irritated with him already.

"That's enough Tony," Pepper said from his side. It was almost as if she was talking to a child, but there was practically no difference anyways. "Clint, Natasha, come in and sit. Make yourselves at home. Dinner is almost ready."

Clint took Natasha's coat and then he shed him own and draped them over the back of one of the chairs. Natasha plopped down on the couch and Clint sat down right next to her as they began to engage in a conversation with Thor.

It wasn't long until Pepper called Clint, Natasha, and the rest of the Avengers to the dinner table. They gathered around the table to a variable spread of chicken, vegetables, and breads, and then started to fill their plates.

They sat in silence for a couple minutes until Pepper broke the silence and started asking questions about the baby. Natasha answered as calmly as she possibly could; Pepper was the last person she wanted to snap at.

"Did you find out the sex?" Pepper asked excitedly.

"Oh no, I want to wait," Natasha said.

"Do you know Clint?" Pepper asked, turning her attention to Clint.

"No, I figured it would be fair for both of us to be in the dark about it," Clint said.

"Oh, well that's sweet," Pepper said.

"So when are you two going to get married?" Tony blurted out.

"_Tony!_" Pepper scolded.

"What? I think that's a perfectly fair question to ask."

"Whether they want to get married or not is _their_ business and not ours," Pepper countered.

"Oh come on, they might as well," Tony said. "They're having a kid together, and they can't deny those lovey-dovey feelings for one another. Plus, they need each other - ."

"I don't _need_ anyone," Natasha spat, narrowing her eyes to slits at Tony.

"Okay, fine, but he certainly needs you. He can't even remember to put his hearing aids on in the morning. You need to remind him."

"_Stark. Drop it, before I shove this fork up your ass_," Natasha said through gritted teeth but it was too late. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Clint get up from his chair.

"Clint, I'm so, so sorry," Pepper said.

"_You're_ not the one who should be apologizing," Clint said, "but I'm going outside for some fresh air."

Natasha watched as Clint stalked out of the room, disappearing into the dark night outside. Natasha waited a couple more seconds before getting up to join Clint outside, but not before smacking Tony in the back of the head as she rounded the table.

As she stepped outside onto the balcony, she felt a cool breeze whip through the air and she shivered, suddenly regretting not grabbing her coat on the way out. Clint was sitting on the floor with his legs dangling over the edge. Natasha moved closer to him as quickly as she possibly could for fear that he may just purposely slide off the edge.

She slowly lowered herself down onto the ground next to him and swung her legs over the edge as well.

"You really shouldn't be this close to the edge. I don't want you and my kid to be in danger," Clint grumbled.

"Neither should you. I don't want the father of my kid in danger either," she said.

"You of all people know that I'm perfectly fine when it comes to heights," he retorted.

Natasha nodded. "Tony was just being Tony but that was even out of line for him."

"Well, he has a point. I'm like a five-year-old. I need to be reminded - ."

"You're getting better at it Clint," she said.

"Yes, I've been getting better at it but just imagine when the kid comes. I'm going to have to wear them all the time. I have to be able to hear when it's up at night and I need to be alert when it's awake. If I can't do it now, I guess I'm not going to be fit to be a dad."

"Cut the shit Clint. It's going to be fine."

Clint sighed. "This kid is going to have four superhero uncles and its dad is just going to be ordinary."

"Seriously Clint, you are being absolutely ridiculous now."

"I mean, our kid is going to look at me like I'm weak."

"Oh for the love of God, would you stop beating yourself up over this! Our child is going to look up to you like you're a hero. Any child does that with their parents. But if you keep mentioning it and making a big deal out of it, your child is not going to look up to you," Natasha argued. "Besides, our child already loves you because whenever it's just you and me talking. He or she kicks like crazy."

This seemed to cheer Clint up since he looked at Natasha with excited eyes.

"You can't say that you're ordinary Clint. Our kid doesn't think so," Natasha muttered. That's when Natasha leaned in to kiss Clint full on the lips. She had never instigated a kiss before, not even when they had to put on a show for a mission. But this felt absolutely explosive.

Maybe she'd been denying her feelings for Clint for too long. Maybe the pregnancy had changed how she felt about him. Part of her was actually hoping that these feelings that she was experiencing was due to the hormones but Natasha Romanoff wasn't stupid. She had never been one to get romantically involved with anyone but being partners with Clint Barton after all these years made it inevitable for them to become romantically linked.

"Maybe you should get knocked up more often," Clint breathed when they broke away from one another. "You're a lot more caring…and romantic."

Natasha snorted a laugh. "This is all your doing if you really think about it," she said, placing a hand on her swollen stomach. "Thanks for knocking me up Hawk."

Clint knew she was being sarcastic but he replied with a "No problem" anyways. He then brought his legs back up to solid ground and stood up, then offered a hand to help Natasha up as well. It took some effort due to the extra weight around her midsection, but she finally got to her feet.

"Think it's about time we go back inside and kick Tony's ass?" Natasha asked.

"I'm game, and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do more damage than me despite being five months pregnant," Clint said jokingly.

"Some things will never change," she said. Natasha flashed Clint a hint of a smile and then grabbed him by the arm to lead him back inside for a battle against the Iron Man.

* * *

**Things will get better for Clint. I promise. I hope this isn't too out of character for Natasha and Clint. I must still be in the _Fix You_ mind set if they are out of character haha.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of this chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Things start looking up for Clint this chapter! Oh, and this one is a lot longer than the others haha. I'm hoping if I maybe update a long chapter for this story I can start working on my _Love Me If You Dare_ Clintasha story. Either way, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

About a month after the dinner fiasco, Tony approached Clint at the SHIELD base. At first, Clint saw Tony and tried to run in the opposite direction in hopes that he didn't see him. Unfortunately, he did and he ran to catch up with Clint.

"Hey Katniss, chill out! I'm here to tell you something," Tony said.

"Whatever it is Stark, I don't want to hear it," Clint grumbled.

"Yes, I think you do," Tony said. "I think I may have had a breakthrough!"

"Is that supposed to be a euphemism in relation to your sex life? If it is, I really don't want to know, Stark."

"No Robin Hood," Tony said. "Actually, after dinner that night, I got to thinking if there was a way to repair the damage to your hearing so Banner and I launched into research mode and gathered a lot of information."

"Okay? Your point?"

"We're not completely sure, but we may have found a way," Stark said giddily. He was acting as if he was a two-year-old on Christmas morning. "We're going to continue doing research but we're 99% sure that it can be fixed."

"Well, you better figure out that other one percent or I won't believe you at all," Clint said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Look Barton," Tony said, placing a hand on Clint's shoulder. "What I said at dinner went a little too far so I'm trying to make it up to you. We're going to fix your hearing."

Clint looked at him skeptically and then said, "When you say 'we,' what do you mean?"

"Well, Banner and I are obviously doing the research but if it comes down to surgery, we'll leave that up to the SHIELD medical personnel. We'll hand over the research to them and then they'll figure out how to go about it."

Clint stared at Tony in disbelief. Tony wasn't a cold hearted person, but Clint didn't completely believe that he was doing this for him. Of all the things Tony was wasting his time on, it had to be research to fix Clint's hearing.

"Look, I know how you think your kid won't like you because of your disability - ," Tony started but Clint interjected.

"How do you know about that?"

"JARVIS hears everything. Plus, I checked out the security feed from that night when you and Natasha were outside."

Clint rolled his eyes but Tony continued. "I know that you want to make your kid proud. I know you want him or her to look up to you like a superhero so I'm going to do my best to make that happen."

"Thanks Stark?" Clint said in disbelief. He still wasn't quite sure why Tony wanted to do this for him, but he guessed that if Tony and Bruce had gone through so much trouble already, he couldn't stop them from continuing.

"Don't mention it Legolas. Now, to the Bat Cave!" Tony said and then took off down the hall to resume his research.

* * *

Clint didn't want to get his hopes up. His hearing loss was most likely going to be a disability he would have to live with for the rest of his life. If there was a way to regain hearing, there probably wouldn't be a lot of people living with this disability.

"Earth to Hawkeye," Natasha said, waving her hand in front of his face. It was about 10:00 at night and they were lying in bed together, ready to go to sleep. However, Clint knew there was no way he'd be able to fall asleep tonight. The new information that Tony had shared with him earlier that day had been on his mind ever since. If Natasha had been talking to him, he definitely didn't notice.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, what?" Clint mumbled.

"What is _with _you?" she asked. "You've been out of it all day."

"Yeah sorry. Tony talked to me and told me something…umm, I guess you could call it life-changing?"

"Life-changing? What could Tony Stark possibly tell you that can be life-changing?"

"He thinks my hearing can be fixed," Clint stated bluntly.

Natasha looked at Clint in disbelief. She seemed to be in the same mind-set as Clint. She couldn't quite believe that Clint's hearing could be fixed.

"What? How? And _why_? Why is he putting so much effort into this?" Natasha asked.

"He feels bad about what he said at dinner that night so he's trying to find a way to fix my hearing to make things right. He says he's 99% sure that he knows what has to be done but he and Bruce are still working on it."

"Huh," Natasha said in reply. "And how would your hearing be fixed?"

"Probably surgically, but like I said, Stark's only 99% sure."

They lay in bed together in silence for a couple more minutes, just pondering the possibilities. Natasha knew that if Tony and Bruce found a way for Clint's hearing to be repaired, Clint would not think twice about it. The whole hearing loss dilemma had been hard on him, and it still was, but he had been adjusting well.

"Would you do it?" Natasha asked.

Clint shrugged. "I guess. It would be fantastic to have my hearing back to normal."

"But what if the surgery has a lot of risks? Clint, I can't have you risking your life just to get your hearing back when you can hear with the hearing aids in."

If the surgery had a lot of risks, the odds of at least one of them happening to him were probably slim to none. There is always a risk with any surgery, even the simplest of surgeries. People have been known to die from blood clots during simple knee surgeries. Thinking about all the things that could happen to him was frightening, but if it resolved his hearing dilemma, he was actually willing to take the risk.

"I would still try it, Nat," he said. "There's no way I would pass that up."

"And what if one of the possible risks resulted in death? Tell me that Clint," she countered angrily.

"Tasha, I…" he trailed off. She had a point. A lot of things could happen to him. His hearing could end up worse than before the surgery. He could end up with an even worse health problem. But the worst thing that could happen was that he could end up dead. He could flat line on the table, bleed out, or clot.

"Are you even thinking about your kid here?" she said angrily. "That's not fair Clint. That's really un-fucking-fair."

She whipped the covers off of her and slipped on her black robe. She was angrily mumbling something in Russian under her breath and then she headed for the door.

"Tasha, where are you going?" Clint asked, concerned.

"Going for a walk around the base. I need to take my mind off of this," she said, and then opened the door to their living quarters and slammed it behind her.

* * *

Clint woke up the next morning with Natasha sleeping as far away from him as possible. Clint had tried to stay up and wait for Natasha to return but he felt the drowsiness overcome him and he drifted off to sleep. He heard her come in some time later. He wasn't sure if it had been hours or minutes after he fell asleep, but he felt her lift up the covers and climb into bed.

Clint slipped out of bed and headed out of the room. He padded down the hall to the SHIELD base's cafeteria to grab a coffee. He was exhausted from the conversation he had with Natasha last night. He understood why she was angry, but he had hoped she would support the fact that he may just want to do it if fixing his hearing required a dangerous surgery.

He sat at a table in the cafeteria with his head resting on the top of the table when he heard someone approach the table. Clint didn't lift his head to find out who it was, but he definitely knew someone was there. And he was glad that he actually put his hearing aids in when he got up.

"Hey bird brain," came the voice of Tony Stark.

Clint groaned. "What Stark?"

He heard a chair being scraped across the floor and the sound of Tony plopping down in said chair.

"Banner and I have everything worked out and we're 100% sure you can regain your hearing," Tony informed the archer.

"Fantastic," Clint said sarcastically, his head still resting on the tabletop.

"What's your problem?"

Clint raised his head from the table and looked at Tony. "Natasha and I kind of, sort of, maybe got into a fight last night."

"Why do you say it like that? You either did or you didn't. It's as simple as that," Tony said.

"Yeah, I don't know," Clint said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Did you not get her a food she was craving? I hear pregnant women get very hostile if you don't get them food, and the Black Widow is probably ten times more hostile when it comes to craving food during pregnancy."

"No, no, she's actually been pretty calm about her cravings. We actually talked about you and Bruce doing research to fix my hearing," Clint said.

"Of all the things she has to get testy over, it's this," Tony said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Then again, this is the Black Widow."

"I thought she'd be happy about it, but then she started worrying about the risks there could be if there was major surgery involved and then she just kind of bolted when she mentioned that I wasn't thinking about our kid," Clint explained.

"Fear not Hawk," Tony said. "There will be absolutely no risk with this surgery. Sure, you'll have to have your head cut open but it will be perfectly safe."

"_What?_" Clint said, caught off-guard by Tony's statement.

"Oh yeah, your head needs to get cut open for the damage to be repaired. Since there was damage to the internal organs in your ear – I got a hold of your medical file, hope you don't mind – you would basically need a transplant. And it is possible! But once the transplant is through, everything would need to be rewired in your head. Basically, switch the circuit breaker."

"So, there's such a thing as a transplant for this?"

"Yes Robin Hood," Tony said proudly.

"And there would be no risks, you said?" Clint asked hesitantly.

"Well…you could quite possibly be fucked up in the head afterwards. I would use a different term but I don't feel that's appropriate. But you'd have your hearing back."

"Great, that makes me feel a lot better," Clint said sarcastically.

"Look Barton, it's going to be perfectly safe. Nothing will go wrong. Do you seriously think Fury would let something happen to one of his best assassins? He'll have the top surgeons in the _world_ performing this surgery if you agree to it."

Clint pondered the possibility and weighed the pros and cons. He would have his hearing back but there was a risk that he could come out of it not right in the head. He could forgo the surgery and have to live with his disability for the rest of his life. And yet, there was a chance that the surgery could work and he could come out of it perfectly fine, hearing and all.

Clint sighed. "You know what, I'll have to let you know," he said. "I need to fix things with Natasha, and then hopefully she'll let me talk to her about it."

"Alright Hawk, talk it over with the Black Widow and then come see me afterwards if you still have your balls attached to your body," Tony said, and then got up and walked out of the cafeteria.

* * *

Clint dragged his feet as he headed back to his living quarters he shared with Natasha. He sat alone in the cafeteria for some time before he came to his senses and realized that he had to go talk to her. She wasn't going to like the conversation, and if she was just waking up when he talked to her about it, that would make her even more hostile.

He quietly opened the door and slipped into the room, finding Natasha sitting upright in bed. Her red curls were a tangled mess and her eyes were still weighed down with sleep, but she was still more alert and awake.

"Hi," she said when Clint walked into the room.

"Morning Tasha," Clint mumbled. He crossed the room and collapsed on top of the bed, leaving a substantial amount of space between the two of them just in case she was still angry with him.

"Where'd you go?" she asked innocently.

"Umm, the cafeteria for some coffee. I didn't think to bring something back for you. Sorry," Clint mumbled into his pillow.

Natasha shook her head. "No it's okay. I'll get something later."

They sat in their room in silence for quite some time, and Clint wondered how angry she still was from last night. Currently, she was calm, but she could still be fuming on the inside from their talk.

"So, about last night…" she trailed off.

Clint turned his head so that he was facing her, resting his head on the pillow.

"We're not married. We're barely officially dating. The only thing that's keeping us invested in one another other than the fact that we're partners in the field is that we're having a baby together," Natasha said. She took a deep breath, and then continued. "I don't know why I got so angry last night. Well, I do know why. I don't want my child, _our_ child, to be without a father. I don't want to see you suffer. I don't want to lose you.

"I've nearly lost you countless times to dangerous missions, but the thought of losing you to a normal thing such as surgery to fix an aspect of your life absolutely terrifies me. I'm so accustomed to thinking I've lost you during missions, but I _cannot_ sit around for hours while you're in a surgery, wondering if it's going according to plan or not."

There was more silence between the two assassins as Clint took in all that Natasha had just said. The Black Widow was scared of losing Hawkeye, and Clint was definitely having a hard time wrapping that thought around his head. The Black Widow did not get scared. Clint wanted to blame these strange feelings that Natasha was experiencing on the pregnancy hormones, but Clint pushed that the back of his mind. It was quite possible that the Black Widow actually did more than just care for the archer.

"Stark talked to me about his research while I was in the cafeteria earlier. He said he's 100% sure about getting my hearing back," Clint said.

"Oh," was all Natasha managed to say.

"It's basically a transplant. They would get new organs for the internal part of my ear, but then they'd have to cut my head open to, as Stark put it, 'rewire' my brain. I'm not really fond of the idea of having my head cut open though," Clint said, trying to reassure Natasha.

"How risky is it?" Natasha mumbled.

"Stark said they would recruit the best surgeons in the world to perform the surgery so there isn't a possibility of me dying on the table. And there's the chance that while they're rewiring my brain, things could be…complicated afterwards," he explained.

"Complicated?" Natasha asked in confusion.

"I could be…a little slow," Clint said, trying to put it as delicately as possible.

"Oh," was all Natasha managed to say once again, and then nodded her head.

"Don't ask me how this is supposed to work. Stark and Bruce have it all planned out, and they're the two geniuses here so if they say this is what I have to go through to get my hearing back, then so be it."

There was more silence between the two assassins as they mulled over the conversation.

"I think you should do it Clint," Natasha mumbled, barely audible.

"No Tasha. No, I won't do it. I know you're not okay with it. I want to do it so badly because of the opportunity to get my hearing back, but you're right. There's a possibility that it's too risky. Too risky enough for me to die on the table and then our child will grow up without me."

"And if it _does_ work, then you'll get to hear all of the great things in our child's life as it grows up," Natasha deadpanned. "You'll hear it laugh, cry, whine, and talk. You'll hear it call you 'Daddy' and me 'Mommy.' You'll hear it all with the hearing aids in, but you can hear it all with your own ears if you do this surgery. It's what you want Clint."

"But is that what _you_ want?" Clint asked. "Do you really want to sit around for hours wondering if I'm alive or not? Do you want to be caring for both me _and_ the baby if things don't go according to plan with the surgery?"

Natasha shook her head. "Just tell Fury you'll do it," she said, and then she got out of bed and headed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Natasha stayed in the bathroom even after Clint left the room. She was on the verge of tears, which was strange because the Black Widow did not cry. And she most certainly did not cry over a little spat she had with Clint.

She hoped she could blame these feelings on the hormones, but once again, she'd be lying to herself if she did. After all these years, Clint had been more than just her partner. Now that he was going to give himself up for a surgery that may or may not work, she was worried that she would lose him. It wasn't just for her sake; it was for their child's sake.

She always told herself that love is for children, but she knew she was lying to herself. She couldn't lie to herself any longer. As she rubbed a hand over her burgeoning stomach, she let the tears fall as she realized that she was in love with Clint Barton.

* * *

**The Black Widow? In love? It can't be! And I tried to make Tony's research believable. I have no idea if there is such a thing as a transplant for the inner ear organs but it's a story so why not right? haha.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think about Tony's research to help fix Clint's hearing and the fact that Natasha has fallen in love with Clint.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I know this is a short update, but I'm already about halfway through writing the next chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

It had been a week since Natasha had told Clint to go through with the surgery, but Clint couldn't bring himself to tell Tony. There was a part of him that wanted to do it. He wanted to be able to hear on his own again. But there was also the part of him – and it was a huge part of him – that realized he maybe shouldn't do it. Not just for the sake of his child, but for Natasha's sake.

Clint knew Natasha too well. Her blank disposition when she told him to go forth with the surgery was a dead giveaway. This was bugging her and he knew she didn't want him to go through with it.

That's when Clint thought back to when he was in the hospital after the Brussels mission that left him without his hearing. When she had told him she was pregnant, he had struck a nerve when he said that she didn't want to be alone if she had the baby, after she had said that she was going to abort it. But Clint wasn't going to have it. He knew that she wanted it, but she didn't want to do it alone. Without Clint, there was no way she would be able to look at their child without seeing him.

He had been stupid, careless, and an all-around dumbass. He had gone back on his own word, and she had gone back on hers. He told her she wouldn't be alone in this, and he was so selfishly throwing everything away to be able to hear on his own again. She had told him that if he pulled another near-death stunt again, they were done. Clint's selfishness was enough to seem like a near-death stunt but Natasha was too emotionally invested to end it.

That was the problem, and Clint had been too selfish to notice it. He was basically preparing himself for death and Natasha was going to let him do it without ending whatever they had between the two of them. She had fallen for him – and it seemed like she had fallen hard – and Clint was throwing it all away.

As he walked down the hall of the SHIELD base to Director Fury's office, Clint grappled with a decision to make. He wanted his hearing back, but he didn't want to risk everything he had with Natasha. And he definitely didn't want to risk dying on the table and not meeting his child.

After Tony had proposed the plan to Clint, he immediately went to Fury to let him know that there was a way for their best marks man to get his hearing back. Once Fury was in the know, he approached Clint and told him that he needed to know ASAP if Clint wanted to go through with it so they could find him a donor and hire surgeons. Clint had spent the past week weighing the pros and cons, and as he walked towards Director Fury's office, he still hadn't officially come to a decision.

When he approached Fury's office, he took a deep breath before rapping his knuckles on the door three times. He heard Fury's deep voice tell him to enter and he pushed open the door and stepped in.

"Agent Barton," Fury's voice echoed throughout the vast room, "I trust you have a decision?"

"I think I do Director," Clint said uneasily.

"You _think_, Agent Barton? I told you to be sure of your decision when it came time for you to tell me."

"Okay Director," Clint said. "I _know_. I…I don't think I can do it."

"Are you _sure_, Agent Barton?" Director Fury asked. "You have wanted to regain your hearing ever since the mission in Brussels and now there's an opportunity to get it back and you say no?"

"With all due respect Director, I have a child on the way and there's a chance I could die on the table. There's always a chance you could die in surgery, but I can't risk that. I don't want my kid to grow up wondering who their dad was."

Fury leaned back into his chair and let out a deep breath. "Once again, are you _sure_ Agent Barton?"

Clint took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm sure, Director."

"Okay, then I'll inform Stark and Banner that they should pack up all of their research."

"No offense Director, but are you trying to guilt me into it?" Clint asked.

"Absolutely not Agent Barton," Fury said sincerely. "Your hearing loss has not affected your marks man skills so I find no need to guilt or pressure you into doing this. However, if you are interested at some point in the future, the opportunity will be waiting for you."

"Thank you Director," Clint said with a nod.

"You are dismissed, Agent Barton."

Director Fury turned back to the work on his desk as Clint turned on his heel and marched out of the room. He was glad that Fury was supportive of his decision, despite the fact that Clint had been whining about his hearing loss practically all the time. It lifted his spirits knowing that Fury didn't think any less of him in spite of Clint's disability.

Now that the burden of the surgery was off of his shoulders, Clint had to fix things between him and Natasha. For the past week, Natasha had been avoiding him, only being in his presence when she would sneak in late at night and crawl into bed, sleeping on the farthest edge of the bed as possible. Even when he would see her around the SHIELD base, she would scamper off in the opposite direction when she would catch sight of him.

Clint hoped that she would be at their living quarters when he returned. He knew she wasn't due at the control room for another two hours and he knew the Black Widow wasn't that eager to report for work two hours early.

He entered the living quarters' wing of the SHIELD base and stopped outside of his room that he shared with Natasha, taking a deep breath. To tell the truth, Clint was actually excited to tell Natasha that he decided to not go forth with the surgery. Hopefully, that would fix things between the two of them and they could get back to normal.

Natasha was right when she had said that they were barely in an official relationship. Even after that night at the Avengers Tower when she had instigated the kiss outside, they still barely kissed. They barely showed any sort of affection to one another, unless sleeping in the same bed counted. Clint was hoping that with the air cleared from the surgery talk, they could finally talk about being a couple. They could finally officially be together.

Clint punched in the pass code and it granted him access to his room. He pushed open the door and stepped into the room where he found Natasha hunched over, gripping the side of the bed with white knuckles.

Clint immediately rushed to her side in a panic. "Tasha, oh my God, what's wrong!"

"I…I…don't know," she whimpered breathlessly. Then, she let out a high-pitched scream that made Clint wish he didn't have his hearing aids in. It wasn't because it was an annoying noise; it was because he didn't want to hear Natasha cry out in pain. Whatever was wrong with her, he didn't want to see her suffer.

He'd seen her be tortured countless times during missions, and though it would absolutely kill him to see her like that, he knew she would always pull through in the end. However, right now, he was absolutely terrified. Whatever was going on, there was not only something wrong with Natasha, but there definitely had to be something wrong with the baby. There could be no other possible explanation.

Clint's worst fear was made reality when Natasha pulled a shaky hand from the bed, felt between her legs, and came out smeared with crimson red blood.

* * *

**Whoops! Did I forget to mention that this update is shorter because it has a cliffhanger at the end? My bad! For those of you that read _Fix You_ know that I have a knack for drama and twists and turns so please stay tuned!**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Please don't be mad at me! It will all work out in the end! Therefore, please review! Let me know what you think of Clint declining the offer for the surgery and my awful cliffhanger.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright, everyone can rest easy because here is the next chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

"I need a doctor!" Clint screamed at the top of his lungs when he burst through the doors of SHIELD's medical wing. Natasha was currently passed out in his arms while her clothes and Clint's arms and shirt were smeared with her blood. Nearly a dozen doctors and nurses swarmed Clint and took her out of his arms, gently placing her on a gurney that Clint hadn't even noticed they brought over.

They started to roll her towards the emergency room and Clint started following until a nurse grabbed him by the shirt, telling him that he couldn't go any further.

"She's carrying my child! Are you seriously telling me that I can't be there to make sure that they're both okay?" Clint exclaimed.

"_Yes_, Agent Barton," the nurse said firmly. "I'm sorry, but you can't go any further. You'll have to wait here."

Clint stood frozen in his spot as he watched the nurse disappear through the doors they had taken Natasha through only moments ago. He felt numb. He was absolutely paralyzed with fear. The tables had been turned on them. Natasha had told him that she couldn't bear to sit around for hours, wondering if he was still alive or not during a surgery. Now that Clint had declined the surgery, the situation was reversed. Clint, now, had to wait for who knows how long until he could find out if she _and_ their child were alive.

Clint didn't realize he was standing in the way of other doctors and patients until a doctor ran into him, nearly causing Clint to lose his balance. He wasn't sure how long he had been standing there, staring at the door just waiting for someone to walk through it and give him news. When the doctor bumped into him, Clint dragged his feet to a nearby chair and slumped down in the seat.

After a while, he took his eyes off of the door and focused them on his blood stained hands. The blood, Natasha's blood, had started to dry and cake but Clint was in too much shock to do anything about it. He fingered the hem of his shirt, staring at the crimson red blood that was staining the front of his shirt. If he hadn't been in so much shock, he probably would've cared enough to change his shirt and wash the blood off of his hands.

Sometime later, Director Fury came bursting through the doors to the medical wing with the Avengers and Pepper in tow. Clint scrambled to his feet, still in a daze.

"Agent Barton," Director Fury said, "how are you holding up?"

"I'm not holding up," Clint mumbled. "No one has come to tell me how they are. I've been sitting here for God knows how long just staring back and forth at the door and the blood on my hands. Please tell me you know something, Director."

"I'm afraid I know just about as much as you do, Agent Barton," Fury said, and then stepped aside for the Avengers to express their condolences. Pepper was the first to step forward and offer up a hug for Clint, despite him being covered in Natasha's blood. It seemed like Pepper didn't even think twice about it when she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in comfort.

"She'll get through this Clint," Pepper said comfortingly when she pulled away. "They both will."

No words of comfort would ease the tension Clint was feeling right now. As much as each of his team members expressed that Natasha would pull through, nothing would make Clint feel at ease until he heard some form of news. He definitely wouldn't rest easy until he did.

Once all the Avengers had expressed their concern for Natasha and the baby's well being, they settled into the chairs lining the hospital wall and waited with Clint. It could have been hours or minutes until a doctor burst through the doors, but either way, Clint was glad he would be getting some form of news.

"We were able to stop the bleeding and give Agent Romanoff a blood transfusion. Fortunately, both Agent Romanoff and baby are in stable condition," the doctor said, and Clint let out the breath he had been holding in for hours. He nearly felt his legs give way from underneath him but steadied himself by grabbing hold of Bruce's shoulder.

"We suspect that whatever was done to her during her time with Red Room was cause for the bleed out. Sometimes at this point in pregnancy, women do bleed without explanation but we're assuming that whatever happened to Agent Romanoff during her time with Red Room as a child was a catalyst for the bleeding," the doctor informed the group. "We've run some tests and found that the rest of the pregnancy should go according to plan, but we're going to confine Agent Romanoff to bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy just to be safe."

All of the Avengers were staring at the doctor and when none of them answered, Director Fury offered up a thank you to the doctor. The doctor was about to walk away when Clint realized that he needed to ask if she was ready for visitors.

"Wait! Can I see her?" Clint asked anxiously.

"She's resting now and we wouldn't advise you to wake her, but I'm sure we can arrange for you to sit by her bedside for a little bit," the doctor said and then walked through the doors to tend to more patients.

The wait was agonizing for Clint. In the meantime, he changed out of his blood stained shirt and washed the dark red blood from his hands and arms. It had to have been another hour until they allowed him to see Natasha but when they did, Clint let out another breath of relief and followed the nurse down the hall. When they approached Natasha's room, Clint nearly bolted in the other direction. After all of those agonizing hours of waiting, he wasn't sure he was ready to face what was on the other side of the door.

He stepped inside and saw Natasha fast asleep, her chest rising and falling in a healthy and steady rhythm. Each step he took towards her bed seemed to eerily echo throughout the room and he was just grateful once he reached her bedside. He pulled a chair from the corner of the room to her bedside and sat down. He stared at her sleeping form for a couple minutes before he reached out and grabbed one of her delicate hands and cradled it between his.

* * *

Clint didn't even realize that he had fallen asleep when he felt Natasha's hand slip from his. His eyes immediately popped open in a panic and turned to look at Natasha. She was lying on her side, her green eyes wide open, and one of her hands resting on her stomach.

"Tasha, hey," Clint said, moving his chair closer to her bed.

"The baby's okay?" she croaked.

"The baby's okay. You're okay," he reassured her. He pushed a stray hair out of her face and she smiled weakly at the gesture.

"Maybe we should reevaluate the whole near-death situation. You told me I'm not allowed to do it, but I think it should fully apply for you _and_ the baby too," Clint said.

Natasha let out a weak laugh. "I don't know what that was," she said exhaustedly. "One second I was fine, and the next, it felt like someone stabbed me in the stomach."

"I've never heard you scream like that, Nat," Clint muttered. "It almost made me wish I didn't have my hearing aids in. It was too painful to listen to."

Natasha shrugged. "Sorry," she said, her voice cracking a bit. Clint brought his hand up to her face and stroked her cheek. She squirmed a little bit to get herself in a more comfortable position, but still laid on her side, facing Clint.

"How did your talk with Fury go?" she asked.

"I told him I'm not going through with it."

Natasha furrowed her brow in confusion. "Why not?"

"I know you don't want me to do it, Tasha, and I'm not going to. There's always a chance of dying during a surgery, and I didn't want to risk it. I didn't want to risk our child not getting to know me. My parents died when I was young and I don't want our son or daughter to have to go through what I went through.

"But most importantly, I didn't want to leave _you_. You don't deserve to raise our child alone, and I didn't want to be responsible for that happening. And you can continue to tell me that love is for children Tasha, but I know you love me. Why else would you keep our child after very little persuasion from me? And why else would you tell me to go forth with the surgery when I can tell it absolutely kills you to say it?

"You can continue to lie to me all you want, but you can't keep lying to yourself. But I said it nearly six months ago after the Brussels mission, and I'll say it again. I love you. I've cared for you in some way or form after all of these years we've been partners, but I need you to know that I love you. That's why I wouldn't go through with the surgery."

Natasha stared at Clint in disbelief. Then she squirmed uneasily in the bed and let out a whimper.

"Tasha, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Clint asked in a panic.

"Fucking pregnancy hormones," she cried as she awkwardly rolled over to her other side, her back facing Clint. Clint chuckled and he rubbed Natasha's back as he felt her heave a sob.

"Tasha, it is okay to feel weak every once in a while. It means you're human," Clint said.

"You should talk," she grumbled.

"At least I admit it. Tasha, no one thinks any less of you around here. If anything they're even more terrified because of what you may do to them because of those little things called pregnancy hormones."

"Stop trying to make me feel better about all this. It's all your fault I'm knocked up anyways. Fucking men…" she trailed off. She was muttering under her breath when she switched over to Russian at one point. She usually did this when she was angry and didn't want anyone to know what she was talking about, but she apparently had forgotten that Clint also knew Russian, along with several other languages from across the globe.

"Nat, stop beating yourself up over this. In almost three months, this will be all over," Clint said, and then took a deep breath. He wasn't sure if anyone had told her that she had to be confined to bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. If they hadn't, it was probably best that Clint was the one to tell her. If she was going to unleash any kind of hostility, Clint would probably be able to protect himself the best.

"In the meantime, you have to ride out the rest of your pregnancy in bed," he said, instinctively flinching. Natasha rolled over, faced Clint, and glared at him.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," she growled.

"That's the Natasha I know right there," Clint teased.

"I have to spend the next three months on bed rest? Is Fury even going to be okay with that? If I'm not okay with it, there's no way that he will be okay with it!" Natasha shrieked.

"Well, weighing the odds, I think Fury would prefer you on bed rest as opposed to having you bleed out in the control room," Clint countered.

Natasha groaned as she pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. "We're a real fucked up couple, you know that right?"

Clint was taken aback. He wasn't quite sure if he heard her right. Did she really just call them a couple?

"Did you just call us a _couple_?" Clint asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay, umm, you didn't hit your head or anything did you? Oh shit, I probably banged your head on the door frame or something when I was carrying you to the medical wing," Clint said, panicked.

Natasha smirked. "We're two pretty fucked up people. What with your hearing dilemma and me being pregnant, we make a pretty good match."

Clint snorted a laugh. "Yeah, I guess we do."

They sat together in the room without saying anything to one another. The only sound that filled the room was the whir and the beeping of the machines that monitored Natasha's statistics. After a couple more minutes, Natasha tried to stifle a yawn but failed.

"You should get some rest. You lost a lot of blood today and you need to rest for the baby," Clint said.

Natasha nodded and settled into a comfortable position on her side. She sighed and then looked at Clint.

"Clint, are you…are you going to stay here?" she asked.

Clint shrugged. "Do you want me to?" Natasha nodded sleepily and then let her one arm dangle over the edge of the bed, offering up her hand to Clint. He took her hand into his and then leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead before she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**Awwwww! So the baby's okay. Natasha's okay. Apparently it has happened (I did research) for pregnant women in their second trimester to bleed without explanation and the pregnancy and the baby turns out okay. But with Natasha being involved with Red Room seemed like a good excuse too so I threw that in as well.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of this next step in Clint and Natasha's relationship.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Alright, we've got a lovely little chapter full of fluff here! Enjoy!**

* * *

Natasha was kept in SHIELD's hospital wing for a couple of days before being discharged. Clint never left Natasha's side during her stay. He didn't want something to go wrong again and he didn't want to not be there to make sure both Natasha and the baby were okay.

When Natasha was discharged, Clint wasn't quite sure if he felt safe having her stay alone in their living quarters during the day. Though Clint hadn't been given any missions since Brussels – and that was mostly due to the fact that Clint went on missions with Natasha – he still worked around the SHIELD base, sometimes assisting on communicating with other agents in the field. Even though she was confined to bed rest, there was no way the Black Widow would follow those orders. If something happened while Clint was elsewhere at the SHIELD base, there would be no one there to help her.

The day Natasha was discharged from the medical wing Pepper came by to offer up some help. When Clint expressed his concern over Natasha being left alone during the day, Pepper suggested letting her stay at Avengers Tower for the remainder of her pregnancy.

"I'll be there if anything were to happen to her," Pepper said with a grin.

"I'm not so sure Tasha would like to be around Stark all day," Clint said hesitantly.

"Oh don't worry about Tony. He'll be leaving tomorrow for California anyways," Pepper said, waving off Clint's comment. "You can stay at the tower as well. I can get a car for you to take you back and forth to the SHIELD base."

Clint thought it over. If Tony wasn't going to be there, it would be perfect for Natasha. She wouldn't have to deal with his incessant snarky comments. It would just be her and Pepper during the day. As for being shuttled back and forth to the SHIELD base, Clint didn't want to feel like it would be a hassle. After much persuasion from Pepper, Clint decided to take her up on the offer.

Before they loaded into a car that was going to take them to Avengers Tower, Clint and Natasha stopped by their room to grab a couple things for the overnight stay. When Natasha started to get out of the wheelchair to help, Clint immediately pushed her back down. Clint continued to throw various items of clothing into a bag, and when he finished, he wheeled Natasha out of the room and down the hall towards the transportation wing where a black town car was waiting for them.

* * *

It had been a week since Clint and Natasha moved into Avengers Tower and they had to admit that it wasn't so bad. Once Tony left for California, the tower was extremely quiet. It was easy to live with Pepper. She was like the roommate who was always there if you needed her but stayed out of your business if you wanted her to.

The day Natasha and Clint had arrived at the tower, Pepper directed them to the second largest bedroom in the penthouse. Clint and Natasha didn't need much, but the bedroom was equipped with a king-sized bed, a large plasma screen TV complete with surround sound stereo system, several dressers, two bedside tables, and a large comfy couch.

Clint still took Pepper up on her offer to provide him with transportation to and from the SHIELD base every day. With Natasha on bed rest, Clint had to assist with giving orders to SHIELD agents in the field. It was usually a long day for him. He would get up every day at six to be there at eight, and he would be at the base as late as ten at night.

Clint didn't like being away from Natasha for that long, and when he got an occasional break – which was rare – he would call her to make sure she was okay.

"For fuck's sake, Clint," Natasha would whine every time he called her. "Pepper's here. I'm fine. If something were to happen, Pepper would make sure you're the first to know."

Clint felt like he never saw Natasha anymore either, and her sleeping form didn't count when he woke up in the morning and came home every night. The medical scare had taken a lot of energy out of her; Pepper said she would usually sleep until ten and then go to bed at eight every night. A few times when he got out of the SHIELD base early Natasha would still be awake and it was one of the few times he actually got to talk to her face-to-face.

When Natasha reached the seven month mark in her pregnancy, Fury gave Clint a day off. When Clint asked why he got a day off, Fury mumbled something under his breath about spending time with Natasha. Clint found it odd that Fury had given him a day off just for, but Clint didn't question it any further.

The morning of his day off, Clint got up at seven. Even on his day off, it was a strange habit for him to get up early. But he popped in his hearing aids and then quietly padded out to the kitchen.

When he wasn't busy giving orders to SHIELD agents, he was busy thinking about him and Natasha. She had a point that they were barely an official couple, and today he was going to do something special for her. Anytime they finished a mission and they were relaxing in their hotel room, they would order room service. It didn't matter the time of day but Natasha would always order breakfast. Blueberry pancakes were always her favorite, and if they didn't have them, she would choose chocolate chip waffles as an alternative.

Clint began opening up the cabinets to look for the ingredients for chocolate chip waffles. Blueberries weren't in season at the moment so there was absolutely no chance of Pepper having the kitchen stocked with them. Fortunately, there was a bag of chocolate chips so he was in luck.

Clint had never made chocolate chip waffles before, but he figured it couldn't be that hard. He politely asked JARVIS to search for a recipe for chocolate chip waffles and he found one, reading off the ingredients and instructions to Clint as he concocted the mixture.

Once he mixed all of the ingredients together, he pulled out the waffle maker from one of the cabinets below the counter. He fired up the waffle maker, and when it was hot enough, he poured some of the batter into the machine. The first couple tries he burned the waffles to the point that they were black, and he even got the batter to stick to the waffle maker during another try. After a couple more trial runs, he finally got a perfect waffle and he flipped it onto a plate.

He poured more of the batter into the waffle maker as he heard footsteps coming down the hall. They were too loud to be Natasha, so he figured it had to be Pepper.

"Oh, good morning Clint," Pepper said sleepily when she rounded the corner into the kitchen.

"Morning Pepper," Clint said, his eyes still focused on the waffle maker.

Pepper reached into a cabinet and pulled out a mug as she started to make coffee.

"Natasha awake?" Pepper said, stifling a yawn.

"Not yet. Or, at least, not that I know of," Clint said. "I'm just making her breakfast."

Pepper watched as Clint worked, only taking her eyes off of his work when her coffee was finished. She offered him a cup and he politely declined.

Pepper took a sip of her coffee and said, "You know, I really like that you two are trying to make this work. I know that it's mostly for the baby, but I think it was the push that you guys really needed."

"Oh, has Tony infected your mind with his ridiculous theories about us?" Clint joked.

"No, I've just always seen the way you guys were with each other. It was always there, but Natasha getting pregnant was what brought you two even closer together."

Clint didn't say anything because he was mulling over what Pepper had just told him. He had always loved Natasha in some way or form for as long as he knew her, and he knew that there was always a part of her, deep down, that felt the same way. Pepper was right that the baby was the push that they needed to sort things out between the two of them.

"It's not my business. I'm sorry," Pepper said when Clint didn't answer.

"No, Pepper, it's okay. Sorry, I was just thinking. You're right though," Clint said with a hint of a smile.

Pepper opened her mouth to say something but JARVIS interrupted her.

"Mr. Barton, Miss Romanoff is awake and is wondering where you are," JARVIS announced.

"Thank you JARVIS," Clint said, and then turned his attention back to Pepper. "Thanks for letting us stay here Pepper. And sorry about the mess."

"Clint, it's no problem. And don't worry about the mess. I live with Tony. I've seen worse." Pepper then grabbed her mug of coffee and headed back to her bedroom.

Clint flipped the last waffle onto the plate, grabbed a fork from the drawer of utensils, and swiped the bottle of maple syrup offof the counter as he headed towards the bedroom he shared with Natasha. When he entered the room, she was sitting upright in bed, with the pillows supporting her back, and she had a scowl plastered across her face. However, the scowl was replaced with a small smile when she saw Clint in the doorway.

"I thought you left," Natasha said.

"Nope, I'm still here. I was just making you breakfast," he said, handing her the plate of waffles.

Natasha's eyes lit up when she caught sight of the waffles on the plate. "Are those chocolate chips?" she asked excitedly.

Clint nodded and handed her the fork and the maple syrup as he sat down on the bed next to her. "I would've made you blueberry pancakes but blueberries aren't in season, so you have to settle for your second choice."

Drenching the waffles in maple syrup, she cut the first piece and popped it in her mouth, moaning with delight. "Oh my God, I can't even remember the last time I had chocolate chip waffles," she said, shoving another piece into her mouth.

Clint chuckled as he watched her devour the waffles he made for her. When she finished, Clint took the empty plate and set it on one of the bedside tables. He leaned back against the headboard as Natasha rested her head on his shoulder.

"What convinced you to make me waffles for breakfast?" Natasha whispered.

"Well, I'm never here for breakfast so I figured I'd make the most of it, and I haven't really been able to do anything special for you since you got pregnant," Clint said.

"Well, I loved them. You're a fantastic cook. Thank you," she said.

They sat in silence as they lived in the moment. It was actually nice to experience some peace and quiet for a change so they didn't say anything to one another while they took in the silence. After a couple more minutes, Clint broke the silence to ask Natasha how she was feeling.

"Oh my God Dr. Barton, I'm fine. Leave me alone," Natasha snapped when Clint asked.

"I just…I never see you so I just wanted to make sure," Clint said.

"I'm fine," she said firmly. "I feel like I can't get enough sleep half the time because I can never get comfortable but that's just normal. Other than that, I'm fine."

Clint was about to say something when his phone rang from the bedside table. The screen flashed the number for the SHIELD base and Clint immediately answered.

"Agent Barton," Fury voice came from the other end, "we need you to come in. There's a situation in Shanghai and we need all of the Avengers."

"Right now?" Clint sighed.

"_Yes, right now_, Barton," Fury said sternly. "I know I gave you the day off but you don't have a choice right now. We need everyone."

"Got it, Director," Clint answered, and then the line went dead.

"What was that about?" Natasha asked once Clint got off of the phone.

"There's a situation in Shanghai and they need all of the Avengers. They need me to go in now," Clint said, jumping off the bed and stripping off his t-shirt. He started rooting through his bag on the floor containing his clothes and he pulled out a clean t-shirt.

Natasha watched as Clint went in and out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth while he put deodorant on. He quickly pulled on a pair of pants then pulled on his clean shirt.

"Do you really have to go?" Natasha mumbled as she watched him finish getting ready in record time. Clint froze in his spot as he looked over at Natasha sitting in bed with her hand resting against her stomach. It had become a habit for her to do that ever since the medical scare; it was almost as if she was doing it to protect the baby.

Clint closed the distance between him and Natasha, bracing his arms on both sides of her and his face within inches of hers. If anyone else did this to her, pregnant or not, she would have punched them in the mouth, loosening a few teeth in the process, but not Clint because he was the only person who could get away with it.

"It's probably nothing. In and out," Clint said.

"And what if it's not?" Natasha asked.

Clint's blue-grey eyes locked on Natasha's green ones and he leaned in to kiss her full on the lips. He brought his hand up to touch the side of her face and the other touched her stomach where he felt their child kick him right in the palm.

In the middle of the kiss, Natasha's eyes opened in shock and she pushed Clint away from her.

"You son of a bitch, what the fuck do you think you're playing at? _Do not_ fucking kiss me like you're not coming back!" she said angrily. Clint was at a loss for words as he watched her wipe her mouth clean of the kiss with the back of her hand.

"You know what, just go Clint," she said, folding her arms across her chest and looking in the opposite direction.

"Tasha," he said. She continued to stare in the opposite direction and didn't even acknowledge Clint when he said her name. "Tasha, I did it because I don't know how long I'll be gone. I kissed you because I don't know when I'll get the opportunity to kiss you again."

She was still staring in the opposite direction, barely acknowledging Clint's presence or even the fact that he had just talked to her.

"Nat, please look at me. I don't want to leave with you angry at me," Clint begged. It took a little more persuasion but Natasha finally turned to face Clint. The rims of her eyes were red and it looked like tears were about to spill over.

"I'm coming back," he reassured her. "I promise you I'm coming back. Do you understand me?" Natasha nodded her head in response to Clint's question. He leaned in and kissed her again, softly but quick, and then he swiped his phone off of the bedside table and headed for the door.

"If you come back any worse than you are now," Natasha interrupted him before he set foot in the hallway, "you are in for a world of hurt. Do _you_ understand _me_, Barton?"

Clint stopped in the doorway and spun around to look at Natasha. "Crystal clear, Agent Romanoff," he said. He didn't move from his spot because he was contemplating on whether he should do one more thing before leaving her for God knows how long. He wasn't sure how long he would be gone. Hell, he didn't even know if he would come back alive. The way Fury talked about it on the phone, he made it seem like it was another battle like the Battle of New York against Loki.

Still stationed in the doorway of their bedroom, he took a deep breath and then said, "I love you Natasha." He then slipped out of room and marched down the hall to get on the elevator.

Natasha shook her head at Clint's confession and leaned her head back to let it rest against the headboard. She rested her hand on her stomach once again, stroking it as she felt her child, Clint's child, begin to kick.

"Your dad's an asshole," she muttered to her stomach, "but you're stubborn, just like him."

* * *

**Uh oh, we've got a bit of drama ahead. Don't expect Natasha to just sit around while Clint's in Shanghai. The Black Widow would never do that. In case you didn't check it out, I started writing another fic titled _What Happens in Vegas__. _It's a _Hangover_-esque story. It's Tony's bachelor party and after a night of hard-partying, Tony goes missing and no one can remember where he is or what they did the night before. Check it out if you would like! No pressure, of course!**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of this next step in Clint and Natasha's relationship and what you think of Fury being an asshole for calling Clint in for a mission haha.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, longest chapter for this fic so far. So get ready, there's drama and fluff ahead. Enjoy!**

* * *

The flight to Shanghai was a long one. Even with the helicarrier's increased speed compared to normal airplanes, the flight was still at least 10 hours. During the 10 hour flight, Fury briefed the Avengers on the situation in Shanghai. A warlord from South Africa found out about the nuclear weapons China had been developing and became infatuated with getting his hands on them. Now, he was invading Shanghai and taking down anyone or anything that got in between him and the nuclear weapons.

Though it was the Avengers' job to go in and take down the warlord and his followers, they were also instructed to save civilians. Too many lives had been lost already due to the warlord's destructive war path, and SHIELD didn't want more lives lost.

The Avengers would be parachuting in – minus Stark since he had his suit to take him to solid ground – and then they would be evacuating civilians while taking down the warlord's followers to get to the warlord. Once they took down the warlord – or brought him into SHIELD's custody, either way would be acceptable in Fury's eyes – they were to provide temporary security for the nuclear weapons that China was developing.

"Drop time in T-minus two minutes," Agent Hill announced as she entered the unloading dock as the Avengers suited up. "Remember to take out his followers and save the civilians. When it comes to taking out the warlord, it doesn't matter if he's dead or alive in the end, just stop him."

The Avengers responded to Agent Hill that they understood and prepared to parachute into Shanghai. The loading dock ramp lowered itself down as the wind whipped through the helicarrier.

"T-minus 60 seconds, Avengers!" Agent Hill screamed over the shrill whistle of the wind.

The Avengers tightened the buckles on their parachutes and readied themselves for the drop in. From where they were standing on the unloading dock, they could clearly see that the city was in chaos. Buildings were ablaze. Smoke was rising to the sky. They could even hear the distant screams of frightened citizens.

"Drop in commence," Agent Hill announced to the Avengers through their communication links. One by one, they ran out of the helicarrier, feeling the weightlessness as they plummeted to Earth.

* * *

"Pepper, I need you to hack into the SHIELD database and pull up the communication details of the mission in Shanghai."

"Natasha!" Pepper shrieked when she noticed Natasha standing in the doorway of her office. "You are on bed rest! You shouldn't be walking around!"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Well if you're not going to do it, I'll ask JARVIS or do it myself."

Pepper sighed. "If I do whatever you need me to do, will you get back in bed?"

"As long as I can get the communication feed from the Shanghai mission to play in my room, then yes, I will get back in bed."

Pepper sighed again as she typed away on her laptop. Her eyes constantly flitted back and forth from the screen to Natasha, who was standing her ground in the doorway of the office.

"I really shouldn't be doing this. I can get in so much trouble. I could probably go to jail," Pepper muttered to herself under her breath. She tapped away on the mouse pad on the laptop and vigorously typed away as she continued to search for the communication feed.

"Okay, found it! Tony had it bookmarked. I'll have JARVIS route it to the stereo system. Now get back in bed!" Pepper ordered.

"Thank you Pepper," Natasha said and then padded back to her bedroom. When she entered the vast bedroom, she could already hear Steve, Tony, and Clint's voices playing through the stereo system as they communicated to one another in Shanghai. From what she could tell, the city had been in complete shambles when they dropped in. Civilians were shielding themselves in any way they possibly could.

Deep down, Natasha wished she was there. She lived off of the adrenaline rush. She wanted to be there to take down whoever it was that was decimating the city.

However, the reason she wanted to be there was to watch Clint's back. If she wasn't seven months pregnant, she would be there, making sure he didn't do something stupid such as misuse one of his sonic arrows or jump off of a building without looking then crash land through a window. Unfortunately, listening to the communication feed was the closest she could get to watch his back right now.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan. The team was plowing through the warlord's followers, and the city was almost devoid of citizens within a five mile radius from where the Avengers were battling the warlord's followers.

Every time Clint's voice echoed throughout the room via the stereo system, the baby started to kick. Natasha used to think it was annoying that the baby got extremely excited when it heard Clint's voice but now, she would just smile. She was even thoroughly convinced that their child would love Clint more than it would love Natasha.

Suddenly, a shot rang out over the stereo system and Natasha panicked. She could easily pick out Steve, Thor, and Tony's voices in the communication feed, and Bruce was probably The Other Guy right now. She didn't want to believe it if it was Clint who got shot.

"Hawkeye's down! Hawkeye's down!" Steve yelled into the communication links.

"Fuck," Natasha hissed under her breath. She listened as the rest of the team rushed to find Clint, and after a couple minutes, they found him, still conscious, with a bullet wound in his left shoulder, barely missing his heart. Clint had taken many bullets before, some of them for Natasha. From what Natasha could tell from the communication feed, this bullet was through-and-through and he was losing a lot of blood really fast.

Natasha instinctively rested her hand on her stomach. She was suddenly angry that she was pregnant. If she was there, this would have never happened. Clint would be fine and the mission would probably be over and done with. Now, there was nothing she could do. Or was there?

"Pepper!" Natasha screamed at the top of her lungs. Moments later, Pepper appeared in the doorway of the bedroom looking extremely frazzled and panicked. "I need you to patch me through to the communication feed."

"You want me to do what?" Pepper asked.

"I need you to add me to the communication links," Natasha said nonchalantly.

"Oh no. No, no, no," Pepper said. "I'm probably already in enough trouble for letting you listen. I cannot just let you jump in on the conversation."

"Dammit Pepper, Clint's been shot!"

Pepper stared at Natasha in disbelief before disappearing from the doorway, only to reappear moments later with her laptop in her hands.

"You owe me big time Natasha," Pepper said as she typed away on her laptop. Natasha watched as she rearranged the communication feed and added Natasha's bedroom into the feed.

"You're all set up," Pepper muttered.

"Thank you," Natasha whispered. She waited for Pepper to leave the room before she said anything. She hesitated to say something. She knew that she would be in deep shit with Fury when he found out, if he wasn't already connected to the communication links already. She was nervous to say something, and yet, each second she wasted, Clint was suffering.

She swallowed the huge lump that had formed in her throat and she opened her mouth to say Clint's name. Her voice wavered and cracked as she said it.

"Tasha?" she heard Clint say weakly.

"Clint, you need to hang on okay?" she said as her voice cracked again. She heard him grunt in response but that was it.

"Natasha," Steve said. "How did you get connected to us? You could get in a lot of trouble."

"I'm already pregnant. How much worse could it get?"

Natasha listened as the Avengers tended to Clint. At one point, Steve called for the medics to extract Clint from Shanghai because there was nothing they could do for him. Caring for Clint's wound was beyond their basic first aid knowledge.

Clint had been silent for a while now, but she knew that if he was dead, the Avengers would be in a panic. But she needed to talk to him to make sure he was still there, to make sure he was still with her.

"Clint, talk to me," Natasha said, the panic in her voice extremely obvious.

"I broke the promise," Clint mumbled inaudibly.

"It's okay Clint." Her voice had started to waver and no matter how many times she swallowed, the lump in her throat kept forming, getting bigger and bigger each time. "The baby misses you, so you just need to stay awake."

"I am," he slurred. He was losing consciousness quickly. Natasha hoped that the medical personnel could get there within the next couple of minutes because she was pretty convinced he wouldn't be able to make it much longer on his own.

Natasha was at a loss for words. There was so much she wanted to say right now, but she'd never really had a way with words. It always came so easy for Clint. He always knew what to say at the right time.

It also always came so easy for Clint to tell Natasha he loved her. He didn't think twice about it, while Natasha was actually struggling to say it. She knew she needed to say it but she was having a hard time with it. It was the reason there was a lump in her throat. She had not only grown attached to the little being that was growing inside of her, but she was attached to her partner, emotionally, physically, and romantically. There was no denying it any longer. She couldn't lie to herself.

"He's slipping from us!" Steve shouted. Natasha brought a hand to her mouth as she gasped, and listened to the Avengers scramble to keep Clint with them.

"For the love of God, Clint Barton, do not leave me now! I thought we had an understanding!" Natasha shrieked as she felt the tears well up in her eyes.

"We do," she heard Clint mumble.

Natasha hesitated as she contemplated pouring her heart out. Now was not the right time for it, and at the same time, it was the perfect time.

"Clint," she said, her voice cracking. He didn't answer and she felt the tears fall. "Clint," she whined.

"Yes, Tasha," he slurred.

Natasha gasped when she heard his voice and put one hand on her chest and another on her stomach.

"I need you to hang on Clint. Please keep talking to me," Natasha said through the tears.

"Okay Tasha," he said weakly. The sound of his voice – how weak it was – was absolutely heartbreaking. She had to say it. There was no way she could bear losing him without him knowing.

"Clint?" she said, and he groaned in response. She hesitated and then she said, "I love you."

At that moment, she heard Steve announce that SHIELD's medical personnel had arrived. She heard through the communication feed that Clint was still conscious and as soon as they had him loaded on one of the jets, they would be immediately taking him to the SHIELD base in New York.

"Natasha, we have to cut the communication for now, but Clint's going to be okay. He's coming home. He'll be there in about ten hours," Steve stated. Natasha muttered a weak "okay" and listened as the communication feed went offline.

* * *

Natasha knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep knowing that Clint was seriously wounded thousands of miles away, but she forced herself to fall asleep so that she would be completely rested when Clint arrived back in New York. She knew that it was going to take a lot of persuasion to get Pepper to allow her to go to the SHIELD base. Pepper would argue that she'd need her rest but there was no way she'd be able to rest in a bed while Clint was fighting for his life.

When the ten hours were up, she rode the elevator with Pepper to the ground floor of Avengers Tower and they loaded into a black town car that was bound for the SHIELD base. Natasha was jittery the entire way. She'd seen Clint wounded and lying helpless and vulnerable in many hospital beds but now, it was going to break her heart.

The moment she stepped into the SHIELD medical wing, many of the doctors and nurses – who knew that Natasha had been confined to bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy – ordered her into a wheelchair so she didn't strain herself. Natasha negotiated with them that if they told her if Clint had arrived and if he was well, she would get in the wheelchair.

When the nurses had caved and told her that Clint had arrived an hour ago and was currently in the ICU wing, she lowered herself into the wheelchair and then made one more demand: that she was allowed to see him now. The doctors and nurses had started to argue with her but Natasha, being the Black Widow _and_ pregnant, demanded that she see Clint. The nurses sighed and motioned for Natasha and Pepper to follow them through the doors.

Natasha didn't like the medical wing. It smelled like death and it was always so eerily quiet. She'd spent many times in the medical wing herself, along with visiting Clint when he landed himself in here as well.

They sharply cut around a corner and then entered through a set of doors marked as the ICU. They stopped outside of a room and the nurses turned towards Natasha. They told her that she wasn't allowed to stay long because Clint needed his rest, but everyone knew the Black Widow didn't follow directions outside of her missions.

The nurses left Pepper and Natasha alone outside of Clint's room as Natasha stared at the doorway in a trance. She'd made her confession to him ten hours ago, and now she was afraid to face him, conscious or unconscious.

"Do you want me to take you in?" Pepper said, pulling Natasha out of her thoughts. "I'll leave right after."

"Oh no, I can go in by myself," Natasha said, waving off Pepper's comment. Pepper took her hands off of the handles and Natasha wheeled herself into the room. The beeping of the machines was the first to let her know that Clint was still alive. The second thing was the steady rise and fall of his chest when she reached his bedside.

Natasha was hesitant at first but she grabbed Clint's hand and put it between hers. It felt so good to have him here in front of her where she could keep an eye on him. The next time she saw Fury, she was going to give him hell for sure. Clint wasn't ready to go back into the field. Sure it had been nearly seven months since the Brussels mission but Clint was still adjusting to his hearing loss.

She rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand and she felt him stir. She looked at his face just in time to watch his eyes open. His eyes still drooped and there were dark circles underneath. His eyes immediately flitted over to Natasha.

"Tasha," he slurred. The pain meds were probably pretty strong at this point, and Clint had to be extremely exhausted.

"Hi Clint," Natasha whispered.

There was a moment of silence before Clint said anything. "You should be in bed."

Natasha smirked and then looked down at her lap, or more along the lines of her protruding stomach. "I thought we had an understanding Clint," she said, her eyes still focused on her lap.

Clint took a deep breath but winced at the movement. "I know, I know, but I guess I wasn't ready to go back into the field."

"No, you weren't," Natasha said firmly. "Fury had no right to put you back into battle."

"Physically, I'm fine," Clint stated. "But my hearing is still off. I didn't even hear the guy with the gun behind me before he shot me. These hearing aids don't let me hear as sharply as I did before."

"You'll adjust Clint. You've done so well so far. You'll be able to adapt - ."

"I'm thinking about having the surgery," Clint interjected.

"W-what?" She was caught off guard. A month ago he didn't want to do it because he didn't want to risk dying on the table or coming out worse than when he went in. Now, after nearly dying in the field, he wanted to knock on death's door again.

"I can't risk something like this again. I know the surgery can be risky but I need my hearing back," Clint said.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Natasha mumbled, pulling her hand from Clint's as she leaned back into the wheelchair.

"Tasha, please don't be mad at me," Clint begged.

"You can bet your ass I'm mad at you. I'm fucking furious! How could you do this to me? How could you do this to our _child_?" Natasha said, raising her voice.

"Fury would do everything possible to make sure his best marks man didn't die."

Natasha just shook her head in disbelief, and then focused her eyes on her lap. From her peripheral vision she could see Clint hang his arm off the side of the bed, reaching out to her. Natasha turned her head to the side to avoid all eye contact with Clint.

"I told you I love you. Isn't that enough?" Natasha whispered, her head still turned to the side.

"That was real?" Clint asked weakly. "I honestly thought I imagined that."

"Thanks, that makes me feel really good," she said sarcastically.

"I was close to dying Nat. What do you expect?"

Natasha shrugged. They sat in complete silence for quite some time. The only sound that filled the room was the beeping of the machines and Clint's occasional ragged breathing. Natasha felt like she'd fallen through a trap. She had finally told Clint she loved him, and he could barely remember that she said it. She had been a fool, and this is why she constantly told herself that love was for children.

Then again, Natasha had been thrust into being an adult at a very young age. She'd never really been a child, so how would she know love is for children? Maybe it was time for her to be a child. Maybe it was time for her to experience something that had so wrongfully been snatched away from her.

"Natasha," Clint breathed. She finally tore her eyes away from the spot on the wall she had been staring at and looked over at Clint. "I'm sorry I thought I imagined it, but if it makes it any better, I'd really like to hear you tell me again."

Natasha smirked as Clint offered up a weak smile for her. Despite being completely weak, his blue-grey eyes showed how sincere and genuine he was in telling her how sorry he was.

Natasha pushed herself out of the wheelchair and leaned over Clint, bringing her face just close enough to his so that she could feel his breath on hers. Clint was about to tell her to sit back down when she crushed her lips against his. It felt different. There was so much meaning behind it, so much love. Natasha didn't need to tell Clint that she loved him because the kiss said it all.

"You know, you can go into labor early sucking face like _that_," Clint breathed when they pulled away from each other.

"I love you Clint, but don't be a jackass."

* * *

**Natasha finally admitted she loves Clint! Yay! But now Clint wants the surgery. Uh oh!**

**For those of you that have read my fic _What Happens in Vegas_ and signed up for updates, added it to your favorites, and all that, the next chapter will probably be up tomorrow. I just had to get this chapter for this story out of my head.  
**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of the mission in Shanghai, Clint's recent brush with death (don't we all just love putting him through the ringer?), Clint wanting to go through with the surgery, and Natasha's confession.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Alright, we've got another long chapter here. Enjoy!**

* * *

The day before Clint was scheduled to be released from the SHIELD medical bay, Fury stopped by to debrief the archer on the Shanghai mission. When he noticed Natasha sitting at Clint's bedside, he cleared his throat as if to tell her she needed to leave.

"With all due respect Director, you and I both know that I was listening into the communication feed," Natasha said icily.

Fury narrowed his eyes at the female assassin as she stared right back, not breaking eye contact until Fury gave in and started debriefing Clint. Natasha listened as Clint described the various twists and turns during the mission in Shanghai leading up to getting shot. When Clint had finished his account of the mission, Fury informed him that the rest of his teammates had, in fact, taken down the warlord and he was now in SHIELD's custody.

When the debriefing was finished, Fury got up from his chair at the foot of Clint's bed and headed for the door. Clint hesitated to ask, but he called out Fury's name before he set foot out in the hallway.

"Director, I've been thinking…" Clint trailed off as soon as Fury's gaze fell on him. Clint cleared his throat and continued. "I'd hate to ask this, but if the offer still stands, I would like to do the surgery to correct my hearing."

Fury looked at the archer with a blank disposition and then directed his gaze to the red headed assassin. Natasha had her eyes trained on her lap, not daring to meet Fury's gaze. She still didn't approve of Clint having the surgery. She wanted what was best for him, and she still couldn't bear to see him struggling without his hearing. But for God's sake, she didn't want him to die on that goddamn table.

Fury looked back at his best marks man and smirked. "I'll get the surgeons on the phone and see what we can do," Fury said, and then turned on his heel and marched out of the room. Clint and Natasha sat in silence for several minutes, taking in the recent events. Natasha didn't look at Clint. She was still angry that he wanted to go through with the surgery and he barely asked her permission. Sure, they weren't married but she still hoped they would talk about it. But Clint made the decision all on his own.

There would be no way she could change his mind. She could probably tell him that she wanted to get married for Christ's sake and he would still go through with it. As much as Clint loved their baby, he constantly argued that it would be best to have the surgery done before the baby came. Even Natasha telling Clint that she loved him didn't sway his decision. He'd finally gotten to hear her say it, and now she wouldn't stop saying it. For Natasha, each time she said it in hopes of persuading him to change his mind, it felt like the last time she would tell him.

* * *

It had only taken Fury one week to arrange the surgeons and the transplant for Clint's surgery. Natasha didn't expect it to happen so quickly, but then again, no one really said no to Fury.

Clint and Natasha spent the day before the surgery shopping for things for the baby. They had to overcome so many obstacles over the seven months Natasha had been pregnant. The first couple months, Clint was healing from the Brussels mission. Then, both Natasha and Clint had been slammed with work at the SHIELD base. Then, of course, Natasha had the medical scare and now Clint had been shot. They seriously needed to take their minds off of everything.

Clint had opposed the idea since Natasha was supposed to be on bed rest but after much arguing, Clint caved. He still wasn't too keen on the idea and he reminded her that they shouldn't take long.

But it was hard to get Natasha to hurry up once they got to the store. They had absolutely nothing for the baby. Pepper would be throwing Natasha a baby shower in a couple weeks, but Natasha needed some things just in case the baby shower didn't happen.

"Does our baby really need five different colored bottles?" Clint complained as Natasha tossed the box of baby bottles into the cart.

"No, but we need at least more than one. We can't be washing the same bottle over and over again," Natasha countered. Clint pushed the cart forward even though the pain in his left shoulder was killing him. He had insisted he push the cart so that Natasha didn't risk anything happening to her. "Jesus Christ Clint," she had whined. "I'm pregnant, not an invalid."

They weaved in and out of the aisles, looking at all the different products that were needed to raise a child. When Natasha had told Pepper they were going out to buy some things for the baby, Pepper was furious at first. She was concerned for Natasha and the baby's well being since Natasha was supposed to be on bed rest. But once Natasha had calmed Pepper down, Pepper gave her a list of things _not_ to buy. Pepper had insisted she would be the one to buy the things on the list for Natasha. Many of the things Pepper had chosen to buy for the baby were the most expensive things, including the crib. But Natasha thought it couldn't hurt to look and get an idea as to what she would like for the baby.

"How do we even shop for our kid when we don't know if it's a boy or a girl?" Clint pondered aloud as he looked at a white crib.

"You get stuff that is gender neutral. Then, when you find out, you go buy more stuff for them," Natasha said nonchalantly.

"I'm kind of regretting not finding out if it's a boy or a girl. Being in the dark about it makes this ten times harder."

"You're just not trying," Natasha said, tossing a bottle of baby shampoo into the cart. Natasha had been avoiding eye contact with Clint all day. He knew that she was still mad at him for not consulting her when it came to making the decision for the surgery.

"Tasha," he said, watching her stare at a rack of pacifiers. Her arms were folded across her chest and she kept her eyes trained on the baby product. "Tasha," he said once again. She didn't answer him. He left his post from behind the cart and stood next to Natasha. She didn't acknowledge his presence when he stood next to her, not even when Clint brushed a stray curl out of Natasha's face.

"Natasha, I know you're mad at me," Clint said, "but I'm not dying on you tomorrow. I've made it this far haven't I? I wouldn't leave you. I wouldn't leave the both of you."

Clint saw Natasha bite the inside of her mouth as she turned her head towards him. Her eyes were rimmed red and Clint could tell that tears could spill over any minute. It was very rare to see the Black Widow cry and if it hadn't been Clint the one to make her cry, he would've been shocked.

"I'm scared. I'm really fucking scared," Natasha admitted as her voice cracked. "How can you just be so okay with this?"

Clint hesitated before he wrapped his arms around Natasha. He didn't feel her begin to cry so it meant that she was really suppressing how she felt.

"I'm not dying on you tomorrow," Clint muttered just loud enough for her to hear as he tangled his fingers into her hair. Natasha pushed herself away and took a deep breath.

"I'm done for the day. Can we just pay for this shit and get out of here?" Natasha said, brushing past Clint. Clint sighed and grabbed the cart, following Natasha to the register.

* * *

That night, Clint slept pressed up against Natasha's back, his arm slung over her body and his hand resting on her stomach. Every so often he would feel their child kick, causing Natasha to stir uncomfortably in the bed. Clint knew that he was risking everything by going through with this surgery tomorrow morning. He was risking his well being. He could, quite possibly, come out worse than he did when he went in.

But most importantly, he was risking his child growing up without a father. He was risking leaving Natasha alone in all of it. He promised her he wouldn't be leaving her tomorrow, but it was something out of Clint's control. Even the surgeons probably couldn't promise he would live. Things didn't always go according to plan during surgeries.

As Clint closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep, he couldn't keep the thoughts from running through his head. There was so much to worry about for tomorrow but his mind was always on Natasha and the baby.

That's when he decided that no matter what happened, he would fight for them. He'd done it many times before but he knew that he would have to fight even harder. No matter what the anesthesia did to him. No matter if he was flat lining. He would fight with every bit of energy he had.

* * *

"Tasha, sit down. You're not even supposed to be here. You're supposed to be in bed," Clint said from the hospital bed. His surgery was in an hour and they would be prepping him for it any second. Natasha had been pacing around the room ever since they arrived. The nurses had ordered her into a wheelchair again but once they made it to Clint's room – where he would be prepped for the surgery – she immediately got up and started pacing out of anxiousness.

"Shut up," she grumbled as she walked back and forth.

"Nat, please," Clint begged, "you're going to strain yourself and cause the baby to go into stress."

"And you going into a nearly six hour surgery won't cause me and the baby to go into distress?" she argued and Clint shut his mouth. Moments later, a nurse came in to prep Clint for the surgery. Since they would have to cut open his head to rewire the transplant when it was put in, they had to shave Clint's head. Natasha wasn't quite sure why this action made her nervous. Clint had shaved his head before for missions, but Natasha guessed that it made her nervous because he was one step closer to possibly slipping away from her.

When they had finished, the nurses ordered Clint to lie back on the bed so she could inject him with some drugs to help him relax. Natasha watched as the drugs immediately took effect when they entered his IV. His eyelids began to droop and his muscles instantly relaxed. The nurse informed him that they would be back in a couple minutes to take him to the operating room, and then she exited his room.

"Tasha," Clint slurred, hanging his arm off the edge of the bed. Natasha hesitated to close the space between them, but she strode up to the bed and took Clint's hand in hers. Not releasing her grip on Clint's hand, she reached behind her and pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down in it.

"We still haven't thought of names," Clint stated weakly.

"You really want to talk about this _now_, Barton?" Natasha said, clearly irritated.

"Why not?" Clint said, shrugging his one shoulder.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the archer. "Fine," she snapped. "If it's a girl…"

"If it's a girl, Alice."

"Why Alice?" Natasha asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"_Alice in Wonderland_ was one of my favorite movies as a kid," Clint explained.

"Don't tell me _Robin Hood_ was one of your other favorites, because we _are not_ naming our kid Robin. He'll be teased and get called The Boy Wonder or something," Natasha said.

Clint closed his eyes and let out a light chuckle. "Other kids wouldn't dare. Not when we're the parents at least."

Natasha let out a small laugh as she looked down at her stomach. "So what if it's a boy?"

"Alexander," Clint stated bluntly.

"Have you given this a lot of thought?" she asked, taken off guard by his quick response.

"Just a bit," he slurred. The drugs were really starting to affect him, and it was only a matter of time until he was taken away for the surgery.

"So Alice if it's a girl, and Alexander if it's a boy," Natasha stated and Clint nodded in response. "I like it." Just then, a nurse waltzed into the room and announced it was time for the surgery. Natasha felt like she had been hit in the chest with a ton of bricks. She wasn't ready for this to happen.

"Can you give us a second?" Natasha asked politely. The nurse nodded and stepped outside of the room. Natasha pushed herself out of the chair and then leaned over Clint so that they were face-to-face. Clint's eyes were weighed down with drowsiness but he was fighting really hard to keep them open.

"If you don't come back, I will never forgive you. Do you understand me?" Natasha asked firmly.

"Understood Tasha," Clint said feebly. Natasha then leaned down and brushed her lips against Clint's. She felt him stir as he put more effort into the kiss. The kiss deepened; they kissed as if it was their last. When Natasha pulled away, she brushed her lips against Clint's one more time before kissing him on the forehead.

"I love you Clint," Natasha whispered.

"Love you too, Tasha," Clint said.

"Agent Romanoff," Natasha heard the nurse behind her say. Natasha's eyes lingered on Clint's face before turning around to face the nurse. "We have to take Agent Barton to the OR now. Otherwise we'll be behind schedule."

Natasha nodded as she eased herself off of the bed but never let go of Clint's hand. The nurse approached the bed and arranged to wheel the bed out of the room. After a couple minutes of tinkering with the bed, the nurse was ready to take Clint to the OR.

"I'm sorry Agent Romanoff, but you're going to have to stay here," the nurse said calmly as she continued to roll the bed out of the room. Natasha stopped dead in her tracks but Clint kept moving. One by one, she felt his fingers slip through her grasp. All she felt was emptiness, and it wasn't just in her hand. It was in her heart.

* * *

It had been three hours since Clint went into surgery and Natasha was still sitting in the waiting room of the medical bay, bouncing her leg up and down out of anxiousness. The rest of the Avengers had been nice enough to keep her company while Clint was in surgery. Pepper constantly pushed Natasha down in her chair every time she felt the need to pace. Pepper was having a panic attack just knowing that Natasha was at the medical bay when she should be resting comfortably at Avengers Tower.

In the three hours since Clint had gone into his surgery, their child didn't kick once. Natasha knew that would happen; she was still convinced that their child loved Clint more than it loved Natasha. But their child knew that Clint wasn't here so it was still as ever.

Right on time, a nurse walked through the doors that led to the operating rooms. Natasha had demanded that someone inform her of Clint's surgery status every half hour. If she couldn't observe the surgery, then she needed someone to tell her how the surgery was going and how Clint was doing.

"Everything is going well, Agent Romanoff," the nurse announced when she reached the assassin. "They've inserted the transplant and are now working on the rewiring aspect of the surgery."

"Thanks," Natasha grumbled and she watched the nurse disappear through the doors once again.

"Everything's fine," Pepper said, rubbing Natasha's back. "We really shouldn't be just sitting here. We should be doing something to pass the time. All of this stress really isn't good for you and the baby."

"I'd be stressing out no matter what," Natasha said as she leaned back into her chair. She took a deep breath, released it, and then pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "Clint just made this ten times harder when he broached the subject of baby names before the surgery."

"Well let's hear them Spidey!" Tony said, butting into the conversation. "Any chance one of the names is Anthony?"

"No Stark," Natasha barked and then turned her attention back to Pepper. "Alice, if it's a girl, and then Alexander if it's a boy."

"Oh those are cute," Pepper cooed.

"Clint thought of both of them," Natasha said with a hint of a smile. "I never really gave much thought to any of this but Clint gives and does so much. I'm going to be a horrible mother. That's why I can't lose him."

"Natasha, you're not going to be a horrible mother," Pepper said, turning towards the assassin. "All first-time moms feel the same way. It's a scary thing. With or without Clint, you won't be doing it alone anyways."

"That's right, Lady Romanoff," Thor boomed from a couple seats down. "We will be here to help raise the baby hawk."

Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose again and sighed. "Stark, stop calling my child a hawk around the other Avengers. You're just encouraging them to use it as well."

"Would you prefer little spider?" Tony asked excitedly.

"No," she growled. "It's a kid, not an animal. You will call it by its name, whatever that name may be."

"Anyways," Pepper continued, "we'll be here to help you no matter what."

"Thanks Pepper," Natasha said with a nod.

Silence followed for the next half hour until the nurse came out again to update Natasha, Pepper, and the Avengers on the status of Clint's surgery. They were still working on the neurology aspect and would be for the remainder of the surgery. When the nurse walked away, Natasha yawned and shook her head to shake off the drowsiness. She hadn't slept well last night what with Clint's surgery and the baby always kicking. Plus, being pregnant meant that you had to give up being comfortable.

"Natasha, you really need some sleep," Pepper said.

"I'm okay," Natasha said.

"You should go back to the tower with Pepper and we'll stay here," Steve said. "Go back, get some sleep, and then when you wake up, Clint will be out of surgery and you can see him."

"He has a point, Natasha," Bruce chimed in. "Sitting here does nothing and only makes time drag. Go and get some sleep. If something were to happen, we would let you know."

"Come on Natasha," Pepper said, getting up from her chair and offering her hand to Natasha. Natasha hesitated to take hold of Pepper's hand but eventually gave in and Pepper helped her to her feet. She was surprised when Pepper didn't argue with her that she was walking out of the medical wing, but Natasha assumed Pepper was going easy on her because she was stressed out enough already from Clint's surgery.

Natasha hesitated to get in the car bound for Avengers Tower, but she did when Pepper politely coaxed her into the car. As the car lurched forward, she finally felt herself started to relax against the comfy backseat. She drifted in and out of sleep until they reached Avengers Tower. Pepper helped her out of the car and into the building where they rode the elevator to the penthouse. When Natasha reached her bedroom, she collapsed on top of the covers and instantly fell asleep.

* * *

"Natasha." Natasha squirmed on top of the bed as she heard her name get called out but she didn't open her eyes. "Natasha, wake up," Pepper's voice said. "Clint's out of surgery. He's awake and he's asking for you."

Natasha's eyes popped open and Pepper jumped. "He's awake?" Natasha asked and Pepper nodded. "And he's asking for me?" Pepper nodded again. "Well what the hell are we still doing _here_ then?"

Natasha rolled off the bed and stood up straight. Pepper looked at her like she was crazy, but told her there was a car waiting downstairs to take her to the hospital. The rest of the Avengers were still there so Pepper didn't feel the need to have to go and babysit her.

Natasha pulled a set of clothes out of the dresser and quickly changed, emerging from the bathroom seconds later with her hair pulled back and a fresh set of clothes on her body. When Natasha was ready, Pepper rode the elevator down to the main floor with her and helped her get in the car to head back to the SHIELD base.

When she marched through the doors to SHIELD's medical wing, she ignored the protests from the nurses and doctors that she shouldn't be on her feet. She needed to find one of her teammates. Steve, or Thor, or Bruce. Someone who could tell her where she could find Clint. She'd talked to enough nurses and doctors in the past several months that she just needed to hear the information straight from people she could trust.

She rounded the corner and saw Bruce, sitting in a chair and staring at the wall. She approached him and jumped at her sudden appearance.

"Natasha, you look much better," Bruce said.

Natasha nodded. "Everything went well with his surgery?"

"Yes," Bruce said nostalgically. "The surgery was a success. You can go in and talk to him but you'll have to keep your voice low."

Natasha couldn't help the smile that was spreading across her face. "Thank you Bruce," Natasha said.

"Just so you know, he is having a bit of a reaction from the anesthesia wearing off. He's been getting sick and running fever but that's just normal. Just thought you should know that."

Natasha nodded. "And his room?"

"Down the hall and through those doors. He's the third room on the left," Bruce said, pointing in the direction of Clint's room.

Natasha thanked Bruce one more time and slowly made her way down the hall. When she walked through the doors, she noticed the third room on the left. Carefully making her way down the hall, she hesitated outside the room before stepping inside.

Clint was lying in the bed with his eyes closed. The machines were beeping to let Natasha know that Clint was still alive, that he was still with her. There was a bandage wrapped around his head to keep the surgical area safe.

Natasha quietly pulled a chair up to Clint's bed and took his hand in hers. The gesture caused Clint to stir and his eyes lazily opened.

"Hey Tasha," Clint said when he noticed her by his bedside.

"Hi, how do you feel?" Natasha said, reaching up and touching his forehead to check for a fever. "Bruce said you've been getting sick from the anesthesia."

"Comes and goes," he said nonchalantly. Natasha brushed her fingers against Clint's cheek before placing her hand in her lap; her other hand was still clasped in Clint's.

"I told you I'd be fine," Clint said with a small smile.

Natasha cracked a smile as she looked down at her lap. "Yeah, you did. I'm sorry I doubted you."

They sat in silence for a couple minutes until Clint stirred suddenly.

"Shit, Tasha, give that bucket. I'm going to be sick," Clint gasped, pointing to the plastic tub on the table by the bed. She grabbed it and held it under him just in time for him to throw up all of the fluids he drank up until an hour before the surgery.

"Yeah Barton," Natasha said with a hint of sarcasm. She rubbed his back as he upchucked in the bucket again. "You're totally fine."

* * *

**Yay! Clint's okay! The surgery was a success! As for the names they picked out for the baby, for the girl, Alice is the name I would like to name my kid if I were to have a girl in the future. _Alice in Wonderland_ is, in fact, my favorite Disney movie so I threw that in there haha. As for Alexander. Umm, I was kind of, maybe, sort of looking at pictures of Alexander Skarsgard when I was taking a break from writing this chapter so I was just like "Okay, let's have them name the boy that." haha**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Let me know what you think of the baby names, Clint's surgery, and how Clint and Natasha's relationship is evolving.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Another long one haha. This one's chock full of good stuff. Enjoy!**

* * *

Each day was an obstacle for Clint following the surgery. Some days were good while others were bad. There were days where he would run a fever and he had a headache that felt like his head was going to split in two. Then there were days when all he wanted to do was sleep. It was impossible to do since the doctors were constantly running tests to make sure the transplant was still working, but the very little sleep he got was magnificent.

Natasha never left Clint's bedside, despite the constant arguments from the doctors, nurses, and Pepper. Even Clint told her she didn't need to stay overnight and that she should go home and sleep in their comfortable king-sized bed.

"I'm not going home to sleep in that bed by myself. It's so empty without you," Natasha whined. Now that all of their cards were on the table, Natasha felt like she could talk freely about how she felt. She didn't want to go back to Avengers Tower and sleep in that gigantic bed by herself. At least, not when Clint was at the SHIELD medical wing, sleeping all alone in an uncomfortable hospital bed.

"Well, you can't sleep in a chair. That's not good for you," Clint argued.

"I'll have someone bring me a cot," she said.

"If I were you, I'd actually choose the chair," Clint deadpanned.

After the first week, Clint actually got out of the bed and walked around. Since Clint had practically had his head cut open, the doctors didn't want him to walk around and get lightheaded. They slowly weaned him towards sitting up by himself in bed, and then they promised him that by the end of the week, he would be able to walk around.

It wasn't much – just up and down the hall – but at least Clint wasn't confined to that lumpy and uncomfortable bed. Clint usually protested that Natasha needed to be in bed when she would grab him lightly by the arm and accompany him on his walk, but Natasha always won the argument. They wouldn't really talk as they walked up and down the hall and when all of Clint's energy was used up, they would retire to his room.

Clint's second week in SHIELD's medical wing wasn't so bad. He wasn't poked and prodded by the doctors and nurses as much, but he was still very irritated when someone started asking his questions or poked him with needles. However, the second week was a lot better for Clint because if all went according to plan, he would be back at Avengers Tower with Natasha by the end of the week. He just wanted to be back in that comfortable bed, curled up next to Natasha. He wanted things to get back to normal.

Fortunately, everything did go according to plan. Clint wasn't lightheaded when he walked. His stats were normal and the transplant was working perfectly. The stitches and staples had been taken out of his head but he was still instructed to take it easy.

Despite being cleared to go back to Avengers Tower, he still wasn't cleared to return to the field. Clint understood that the surgery would definitely set him back again in putting him back into the field, but he had to admit that he was okay with it. He needed time to heal and make sure the transplant didn't get damaged.

And he didn't want to go back into the field now. Not with Natasha's due date rapidly approaching. She had roughly a month and a half left. By the time Clint healed, it would be around the time of her due date and he couldn't risk not being around when Natasha went into labor.

It was strange that Clint practically called Avengers Tower home now. Pepper had been sweet enough to throw a little homecoming party for Clint when he was released from the medical bay. All of the Avengers were there to welcome Clint home, and he had to admit that he kind of liked being welcomed home by his team members. Except for Tony because he could deal with being welcomed back sans Tony.

The homecoming party was nice, but he had to admit that he couldn't wait to just get in bed with Natasha, just the two of them. Three if you technically counted the baby. Clint was relieved when it got late and the Avengers started to retire to the guest rooms at the penthouse. He gently pushed himself off of the couch and then offered his hand to Natasha to help her up. He expected her to swat his hand away but she took his hand and he pulled her off of the couch.

Clint dragged his feet to their bedroom while Natasha waddled her way in. Natasha went straight for the bed, tossing the pillows towards the center to pull down the covers. She put the pillows back in their proper place and then waddled over to the dresser to pull out a set of clothes to change into for bed.

Natasha brushed past Clint on her way to the bathroom to change, closing the door just enough that there was a sliver of light pouring out into the room from the bathroom. While Natasha was in the bathroom, Clint peeled off his t-shirt and traded it for a clean one and then stripped off his jeans so that he was just in his shirt and boxers.

He had just started to crawl into bed when Natasha emerged from the bathroom. She was wearing one of Clint's t-shirts – quite possibly the only size t-shirt that currently fit her – and a pair of cropped yoga pants. She tossed her dirty clothes into the hamper by the bathroom door and then padded over to the bed, climbing in next to Clint.

It was Natasha who instigated the cuddling first. She had scooted closer to Clint and then rested her arm across his chest. Clint was taken off guard when she did it, seeing as she'd never been this way before. But he accepted it and wrapped his arm around her to pull her as close as possible.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she whispered to him in the silent room. It was surprising that the entire penthouse was quiet. Living with Tony Stark was bound to be rambunctious and noisy, but tonight was surprisingly calm and quiet. Pepper probably had something to do with it, ordering Tony to keep the shenanigans to a minimum so that both Natasha and Clint could rest. But either way, the silence was a blessing.

"I'm so glad I can hear you say that to me on my own," he said with a chuckle. His fingers tangled into her red curls as she nestled her head onto his chest.

"I was afraid I was going to end up all alone in this," she stated.

"I told you that wasn't going to happen," Clint reassured her.

Natasha shrugged. "Do you blame me for worrying? You're practically accident prone."

He had to admit that she was right. Brussels left him with a broken arm, a broken leg, several broken ribs, a concussion, and, most importantly, damaged hearing. He ended up getting shot in Shanghai and now, he didn't blame her for thinking he wouldn't come out of the surgery alive.

That's when Clint got to thinking. Every single time one of them ended up in the medical wing, the other was left wondering how the other was. They were left alone, wondering if they would still have a partner. They were left alone in the waiting room to nurse a broken heart until they were given some sort of news.

They weren't just partners anymore. They were still best friends but they were more than that. They were a couple. They were lovers. And they could be more than that. They were going to be raising a child together. If they could manage that, they could definitely manage the next step.

"Let's get married," Clint blurted out.

"The fuck did you just say?" she said, pushing away from him. Her green eyes met his blue-grey ones as he stared her down.

"You heard me," he said.

"I…I did. But – we can't…I mean…" she trailed off. It was an extremely rare occurrence for the Black Widow to be at a loss for words, or at least stutter while saying them. The fact that this was a double whammy absolutely stunned Clint. Natasha took a deep breath to compose herself and then continued. "Clint, we can't. I don't need you to get hurt even more than you already do because you'd be a target for being my husband. I can't let that happen to you."

"You don't think I can take care of myself?" Clint teased.

"Given recent events, no, you can't," she deadpanned.

"Tasha, we're having a kid together - ."

"So that means we have to get married?" Natasha interjected. "This is the 21st century Barton. We don't _have_ to be married to have a kid together."

"I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say that if we're having a kid together, it's quite possibly riskier and more dangerous than just getting married. But if we can have a child together, we can get married."

Natasha looked up at Clint and glared at him. Even though Clint had convinced Natasha to have this baby, it was going to be even harder to convince her to marry him. He didn't want to do it because it was morally right. He wanted to do it because he loved her, and he was pretty sure she loved him. That was enough for him.

"I'll think about it," she said with her eyes reduced to slits. She rolled over in bed with some effort, fluffed up her pillow, and laid down in a comfortable position. Clint cracked a smile as he looked at her relaxed form. He then scooted over towards her, pressing himself up against her back. He slung his arm across her body with his hand resting on her stomach and then positioned his head so that his lips were right by her ear.

"Marry me," he whispered.

"Go to sleep Barton," she grumbled.

"Would you prefer if I did it traditionally?" Clint teased.

"If you get down on one knee, I will kick you where it hurts," she shot back.

Clint let out a lighthearted chuckle as he relaxed and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

At the eight month mark, Pepper threw Natasha a baby shower. Pepper went all out, complete with pink and blue cupcakes, confetti, streamers, and ribbons. It was only Natasha, Pepper, Maria Hill, and even Jane Foster. Between Natasha's three baby shower guests, they had managed to buy practically every item Natasha would need to raise her and Clint's child.

"I can't accept all of this," Natasha said as Pepper shoved another colorfully wrapped gift into her lap.

"Yes you can. It's _your_ baby shower. That's the whole point," Pepper said, and waved at her to tear off the wrapping paper.

"You guys just bought so much stuff, and it's only between the three of you. I feel guilty," Natasha said as she gently tore at the colorful paper to reveal a baby mobile with zoo animals that played music when you wound it up. She placed it on top of the rest of the unwrapped gifts and then turned back in time for Pepper to shove another gift into her lap.

"How's Clint doing? He's adjusting to having his hearing again?" Pepper asked.

Natasha tore at the wrapping paper to reveal a baby monitor and then shrugged. "Yeah he's doing fine. A little too fine actually," she said.

"Is everything okay between the two of you?" Pepper asked as she took the gift out of Natasha's lap and placed it on top of the pile of unwrapped gifts.

"Everything's fine. He must think he's invincible though since he decided to ask me to marry him."

Natasha's statement was received with a round of shocked "What's," "Oh my God's," and – Natasha's favorite which was said by Maria – "He's just asking to get his balls ripped off."

Pepper waved off Maria's immature comment and turned her attention back to Natasha with excited eyes. "Well, what did you say?"

Natasha shrugged. "I told him I'd think about it."

"What? Why would you tell him that, Natasha? You should have said yes! Don't you love him?" Pepper shrieked.

"Yeah, I do," Natasha sighed, "but he's totally out of his mind. We don't need to get married just because we're having a kid together. And I'm not getting married when I'm fat and pregnant."

"Okay, stop right there," Pepper said. "You are not fat. The most amount of weight you have gained during your pregnancy is probably two pounds. And you and Clint have been partners for years. You know each other like the backs of your hands. It helps that you guys love each other. I don't see why you guys shouldn't get married.

"We know you think that getting married will make him a target to your enemies but he's already a target. He works for SHIELD, as do you. Whether you're married or not, he'll still be in danger. He'll still be a target. If you get married, I'm sure that SHIELD could cover it up, just like they'd be able to provide the best security for your future son or daughter.

"Just think it over," Pepper said. "Marrying Clint Barton really wouldn't be so bad."

Natasha groaned. Why did Pepper always have to be the voice of reason? Why did she always have to be right? Fury was not pleased when he found out his two best assassins were expecting a child together so she was pretty sure he wouldn't be happy about them getting married. But he would still work very hard to cover it up. The last thing he would want is one of them being tortured or dying because their enemy was trying to lure the other one in.

So what exactly would be so bad about marrying Clint? Natasha had to admit that she couldn't think of one bad thing. Clint could be stubborn and annoying at times, but Natasha was used to it. They'd been partners for years. They knew absolutely everything about each other. They cared for each other. Most importantly, Clint was committed to both Natasha and their unborn child.

Now that Natasha really thought about it, Clint would be getting the short end of the stick by marrying her. She was the stubborn and arrogant one. He gave so much while Natasha gave so little. But if Natasha married Clint, she could change all that.

* * *

Clint rubbed his eyes as he rode the elevator up to the penthouse of Avengers Tower. It had been a long day for him. He had gotten to the SHIELD base at four in the morning to work on his aim and work on adjusting to the transplant. Some of the SHIELD doctors were running tests on him every so often to make sure the transplant was still working, but other than that, they left him alone.

The elevator doors opened to reveal the penthouse and Clint stepped out to walk down the hall to his bedroom. When he entered the room, he tossed his bow and quiver on the ground and headed to the bathroom. He reached the door and stopped, whipping around to look at the bed.

It was empty and made up immaculately; Natasha was nowhere in sight. He looked around the room in confusion, then stepped out of the room and made his way down the hall.

"Hey Pepper, where's Natasha?" Clint asked when he entered the kitchen.

"She's out on the balcony," Pepper said, pointing towards the glass doors.

"She's supposed to be in bed. You of all people know _that_," Clint said.

"Well, I've stopped arguing with her. There's no point," Pepper said shrugging her shoulders.

Clint shook his head then walked towards the glass doors that led to the balcony. He pulled one of the doors open and stepped out into the blinding light. At the other end of the balcony he could see Natasha – clad in a long white dress – staring off in the direction of the sunset, her back facing Clint.

"You're supposed to be in bed," Clint said as he walked across the balcony to close the distance between them. Natasha turned around to face Clint, her unruly curls bouncing around as she turned. With the sunset in the background, it looked her red hair was on fire.

"What are you doing out here?" Clint asked when he approached her.

"We need to talk," she stated bluntly. Clint's eyes widened at her statement. A girl only says that if she wants to break up with a guy, and Clint was fully convinced she was going to end things for whatever reason that may be.

"Oh no, no, Clint. Not _that_," she said when she caught the look on his face. "Don't be an idiot."

Clint let out the breath that he didn't even realize he was holding, relieved. "I wanted to talk about your…marriage proposal," Natasha said, hesitating before saying "marriage proposal."

"Okay, sure," Clint said, nodding his head.

"So, during the baby shower today, Pepper kind of put things into perspective - ."

"Pepper always puts things into perspective," Clint interjected but shut his mouth when he saw the irritated look on Natasha's face.

"Yeah, so she put things into perspective and she just mentioned how it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get married. SHIELD would be able to bury it deeper than pirate treasures and we wouldn't have to worry as much about each other getting hurt," Natasha explained. "But we're always going to have to worry about each other. There's no doubt about that.

"There's always been something between us Clint. We're assassins so we just ignored it. But just because we're assassins doesn't mean we're not human. We have feelings and no matter how much we suppress them, they're bound to come back to haunt us ten times stronger.

"I can't keep lying, Clint," Natasha said. "I've said it before, and I know I don't say it enough, but I do love you. Love is for children, but I was never a child, and I think it's about time I tried it out.

"So, with that said…" she trailed off, took a deep breath, and then continued. "Yes, I will marry you Clint Barton."

Clint blinked at her with wide eyes and then shook his head. "What did you just say?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I swear to God, what was the point of that surgery?"

"No, I mean…you said yes?" he asked, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I said yes," she deadpanned.

"Are you sure?"

"Do you want me to say no?" she asked condescendingly.

"No, no, no," Clint said quickly. "It's just…you said _yes_. You said yes!" Clint wrapped his arms around her in a big hug. It was awkward because her stomach was in the way but Natasha wrapped her arms around Clint to the best of her ability.

"But we're not getting married until after we have the baby. I'm not getting married while I'm fat," Natasha said into Clint's shoulder. Clint pushed her away with his hands still resting on her shoulders, looking at her with a confused expression.

"Where is this sudden talk about being fat coming from? You are not fat. You haven't gained a pound," Clint reassured her.

"Well what the hell do you call this?" she said, pointing to her stomach.

"That's not _your_ weight."

"_Your_ kid is inside of me until I give birth so it is technically my weight," she said. "This is all your fault."

"You're the one who seduced me."

"Say that again and I rip your balls off."

* * *

**I seriously can't _not_ write a Clintasha story in which they don't end up married. They just have to be married. They're perfect for each other haha.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of Clint's "marriage proposal" and Natasha saying yes.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, so this is a shorter chapter. Just a bit of fluff. Hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

Tony had a surprise for Clint and Natasha and he was far too excited to wait to tell them. That's why Tony quietly crept into the room Clint and Natasha shared together at his penthouse while they were sleeping. Tony knew better than to creep up on two sleeping assassins, especially one who just got his hearing back and one who was extremely hormonal.

But Tony did it anyways, tip toeing closer and closer to the bed. He noticed that Natasha was lying on her side with her hand resting on top of her stomach; Clint was pressed up against Natasha, his arm slung over her stomach with his hand resting on top of hers.

Tony took one more step so that he was standing at the side of the bed, but all hell broke loose. Clint had rolled over on his side, whipped the covers off of him, and had Tony pinned to the floor in one swift movement. From out of the corner of his eye, Tony could see Natasha pointing a gun at him that she no doubt had stuffed underneath her pillow.

"Stark, what the fuck are you doing in here?" Clint asked, releasing his grip on Tony. Clint pushed himself off of the floor and took a seat at the edge of the bed. Natasha returned the gun to its rightful place and glared at Tony for his idiocy.

"I have a surprise for you guys," Tony said excitedly.

Clint glanced at the clock. It read 7:42. "This couldn't wait until after we woke up?" Clint asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Well, now that you guys are awake, it doesn't have to!" Tony exclaimed. "Come with me."

"Natasha can't. She's almost nine months pregnant and she has to stay off her feet," Clint said.

"Well you can carry her, can't you Legolas?" Tony asked.

"I don't like being carried," Natasha snapped. She whipped the covers off of her and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

"Tasha, you really shouldn't be on your feet. Plus, you're _still_ on bed rest," Clint said calmly.

"Clint, it is quarter to eight in the morning. I probably got three hours of sleep total last night and Stark is acting like a little kid on Christmas morning. I really don't want you to start hounding me on what I can and can't do," Natasha snapped. She pushed herself off of the bed and padded over to the bathroom to grab her robe off the back of the door.

As she wrapped the robe around herself, Clint got up from the bed and grabbed his t-shirt from the floor, pulling it on over his head. Tony watched as the two assassins moved slower than they did when Tony had snuck up on them. They clearly weren't morning people unless they needed to be.

"Okay, are we ready?" Tony said giddily. Natasha rolled her eyes at the billionaire while Clint walked over to Natasha's side and grabbed her arm to keep her steady. They followed Tony out into the hall and to the elevator. They stepped onto the elevator and rode it down several floors, until it stopped, pinging to signal that they reached their destination.

The elevator doors slid open to reveal a chic living room with off white furniture. A gigantic flat-screen TV hung above an artificial fireplace. Off to the right was the kitchen. There were four chairs sidled up to the breakfast nook and the counters were topped with marble slabs.

Tony stepped off of the elevator and turned around with his arms reached out at his sides. "Welcome home!" Tony announced.

"Home?" Clint said as he and Natasha stepped off of the elevator.

"Yes, home! This is where you, Spidey, and the baby hawk will be living. It's all yours," Tony announced.

Natasha rolled her eyes and gazed around at the living room and kitchen. "You couldn't find us somewhere, you know, farther away from you?"

"You'll have all the privacy you could possibly need. I promise that there are no security cameras and I will do my very best to restrain myself from visiting. JARVIS is even at your service 24/7," Tony said with a grin.

Natasha took a couple more steps into the apartment, eyeing up the furniture, the paint job, and the kitchen's countertops. It was cozy and simple. It was nothing like Tony's extravagant penthouse several floors up but the apartment looked like it would do its job: give them a place to stay.

"_And_," Tony said excitedly, "I will need you to follow me!"

Clint and Natasha sighed as they followed Tony down the hall. They passed by several doors before Tony disappeared into the only room with its door open. Clint and Natasha followed him in only to be in awe of the baby nursery that was in front of them.

"Pepper set it up. I was actually supposed to wait to show you guys all of this _after_ the baby came but I could tell Pepper didn't want you guys worrying about where you would live afterwards," Tony explained.

The nursery was decorated in a zoo theme. Wallpaper decorated with lions, tigers, and zebras was plastered on the wall. A white crib was set up with the zoo animals mobile hovering overhead. A zoo animal quilt was draped over the edge of the crib. To the left was the changing table while a rocking chair with a rainbow colored afghan draped across the back was stationed in the corner. At the other end of the room was a pile of oversized stuffed zoo animals including giraffes, zebras, and lions. It was the perfect nursery.

"Wow," was all Natasha managed to say.

"Yeah, so, the good news is that everything is set up for you guys so that means you can move in today and finally stop eating all my goddamn food," Tony said.

Natasha glared at Tony. "I'm pregnant dumbass. I can't help it," Natasha snapped.

"So will you guys be moving in today?" Tony said eagerly.

"Ask me that question when I've had a couple more hours of sleep. Where's our bedroom?" Natasha asked, stifling a yawn.

"Right next door," Tony said pointing in the direction of the bedroom. Natasha shuffled out of the room, leaving Tony and Clint alone in the nursery.

"I hate to say it Stark but thank you for all of this," Clint said.

"Don't thank me, thank Pepper," Tony said, putting his hands up defensively.

"Figures," Clint muttered under his breath.

Tony took a couple steps forward so that he was directly in front of Clint. "I've got to say, I'm pretty proud of you for taming the Black Widow."

"I didn't _tame_ her. She's actually a human being you know, despite what you believe," Clint argued.

"Whatever you say, Katniss. I just feel bad that she's going to be wearing the pants in this relationship," Tony said as he brushed past Clint and disappeared out the door. Clint shook his head and then went to join Natasha in their cozy king-sized bed next door.

* * *

"This is cute. Pepper did a great job," Natasha said as her and Clint sat in the nursery later that day. Natasha sat in the rocking chair, rocking herself back and forth, while Clint was leaning over the crib.

"I guess it better be as cozy as possible since we'll be spending as much time in here as our kid will," Clint muttered as he spun the mobile around.

Natasha moaned unhappily. "Don't remind me. I don't get enough sleep as it is," she whined.

"Well, I'll get up with him or her," Clint suggested.

"Don't think I won't take you up on that offer," Natasha said with a small smile. Clint smirked and then closed the distance between the two of them. He placed both hands on either side of the rocking, his face just inches from Natasha's.

"We're going to be a family in just a couple weeks," he muttered with a smile.

"If you told me we would be in this situation when I first met you, I probably would've called you crazy," Natasha said.

"You probably would've kneed me in the groin too," Clint added with a chuckle. "And then tackled me to the ground and choked me out with your thighs."

Natasha smiled at Clint and then reached up to lightly kiss him on the lips. Clint put more effort into the kiss, reaching up to lightly touch Natasha's face. As the kiss deepened, Natasha felt the baby kick harder than ever. Not breaking the kiss, she grabbed Clint's other hand and guided it to her stomach so he could feel his child kick.

Clint chuckled as he pulled away and looked down at Natasha's overly large stomach. "And you say that's _my_ kid in there. I swear it's going to be more like you than me."

"Trust me, he or she is going to be just like you, stubborn and a pain in my ass."

Clint chuckled again and then looked at Natasha, his blue-grey eyes connecting with her green ones. "What do you want for dinner? Whatever you want and I'll make it!" Clint exclaimed.

"We have absolutely no food here. What exactly are you going to cook when the kitchen isn't even stocked?" Natasha asked.

"There are these fantastic things called grocery stores, Tasha," Clint said sarcastically.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Well fine then. I want a grilled cheese with bacon, and a peanut butter milkshake to go with it."

"That's an odd combination," Clint said, furrowing his brow.

"You said whatever I wanted," she countered.

"Okay fine, I did," Clint sighed. "Get ready to go back upstairs. I'm going to leave you with Pepper to babysit you while I go to the grocery store."

Natasha pushed herself out of the rocking chair. When Clint saw that she was struggling, he offered up a hand to her and helped pull her out of the chair. She offered up a small smile and a kiss on the cheek in return and then made her way out of the room to grab her robe from their bedroom next door.

Clint watched as she waddled her way out of the room. If you had told him several years ago that Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, was having his child, accepted his marriage proposal, and genuinely loved him, he would've shot an arrow right between your eyes. Now, he couldn't imagine it being any other way.

* * *

**I hope you guys liked this chapter! I think there's only going to be two more chapters. I hope I can get a lot more writing done by the time I start up school again in like three weeks. Like seriously, where did the summer go? I have so many more ideas for stories but I don't think I'll be able to fit them in within the next few weeks. When school starts up again, updates and stories will become extremely sporadic. I just hope I'll have more of a life this year than I did last year but still plenty of time to write freely. I'm taking two languages this semester so that means there won't be as much homework but who knows with the other classes. Wow, I'm rambling haha.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! This was a bit of a filler chapter (or at least it felt that way to me) but let me know what you thought of it anyways.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Alright, here's the penultimate chapter of _Hearing Damage_! Enjoy!**

* * *

It was two days after Natasha's due date when Clint got up early to make her breakfast. He couldn't believe her due date came and went and the baby still hadn't come. When they visited the SHIELD medical bay for a check-up, the doctor said that if the baby didn't come by the fifth day after her due date, they would have to induce labor.

Natasha looked visibly nervous when the doctor had told her they may have to induce labor. Clint knew Natasha was ready for the baby to come, but she didn't want to have to force it. She knew that it was medically safe but she didn't want to rush it. If the baby wasn't ready, then he or she wasn't ready. Why force it?

To ease Natasha's nervousness, Clint had been getting up every morning to make her breakfast. He would alternate between making her two favorite breakfast platters – blueberry pancakes and chocolate chip waffles – and then he would deliver it to her in bed.

On this particular day, however, Clint had gotten up early like normal and padded to the kitchen to begin making Natasha chocolate chip waffles. He had only begun to stir in the chocolate chips when he heard Natasha sidle up next to him at the counter.

"Will you still make me waffles and pancakes when the baby comes?" Natasha asked, her green eyes sparkling.

Clint chuckled. "Only if I have time. Unless you would like to make them yourself," Clint suggested.

"Nope, wouldn't be the same," she said, reaching into the cabinet above her head to pull out a glass. Clint saw her disappear out of the corner of his eye but heard her open the refrigerator door, rustle around in it, and then shut it. She shuffled over to the breakfast nook, setting the glass down on the marble countertop with a _clink_.

That's when he heard it. She had taken out the bottle of orange juice to pour herself a glass, so Clint had thought she'd spilled it. But that was a ridiculous theory. Natasha had excellent reflexes, even in pregnancy, so there had to be only one other explanation.

Clint's eyes opened wide with shock as he spun around to see Natasha, with her back facing him, staring at the floor. Clint was completely speechless, wondering if he'd even heard it. He doubted it. His hearing had been rendered impeccable since the surgery and he'd been hearing better than he did than when he had the hearing aids. There was no way he imagined it.

"Did…did your…" Clint said, struggling to get the words out.

Still staring at the floor, Natasha muttered a nervous "Uh huh."

Clint stared at her in awe for a couple more seconds before kicking into full-blown panic mode. He dropped the spoon that he had been using to stir the batter on the floor and then quickly rushed to the bedroom to grab the bags they packed a couple days ago. Slinging them over his shoulder, he rushed down the hall and jammed his thumb onto the button to call for the elevator.

The elevator dinged to signal that it had reached the floor and the doors opened. Clint stepped on and jammed his finger on the main floor button. The doors were starting to close when Clint realized he'd forgotten something. Or more like _someone_. Natasha.

He waved his hand in between the doors to make them open again and then he sprinted to the kitchen. Natasha was standing in the same spot, only she was visibly irritated and her arms were folded across her chest.

"Nat, I'm _so_ sorry," Clint said.

"You are going to be a fantastic father, Barton," Natasha said icily as she glared at him.

"Sorry, sorry," Clint said, grabbing Natasha by the elbow to help her to the elevator. Clint pressed the button to call for the elevator once again and the doors immediately slid open. They loaded onto the elevator and Clint pressed the button for the main floor.

As the elevator doors closed and it gave a sickening weightless lurch, Natasha started breathing deeply in and out of her mouth while rubbing her stomach.

"What? Are you okay? Are you having contractions? Is the baby coming _now_?" Clint asked panicked.

Natasha grabbed his face between her fingers and her thumb and turned it to face her. His blue-grey eyes connected with her green ones, which were surprisingly calm. "Did you call for a car?" she said calmly.

"What?" Clint asked, confused.

"How the hell do you expect us to get to the SHIELD base?" she muttered.

"Oh right, umm, JARVIS?" Clint asked the A.I.

"Yes Master Barton," the A.I. responded.

"Natasha's going into labor and we need to get to the SHIELD base," Clint said.

"I'll call for a car. It should be outside when you reach the main floor."

Within a couple seconds, the elevator halted on the main floor and opened its doors to reveal the lobby of Avengers Tower. Clint gently grabbed Natasha by the arm and helped her out into the lobby. They slowly made their way across the lobby and when they stepped outside, a black town car pulled right up to the sidewalk. The chauffeur got out and stepped around the front of the car to offer up his assistance to Clint and Natasha. Clint pulled the bags off of his shoulders and handed them to the chauffeur to shove into the trunk while Clint helped Natasha into the back seat.

When Natasha was sitting in the backseat as comfortably as she possibly could be, Clint rushed around the back of the car and slid into the backseat from the other side. Clint tapped on the driver's shoulder to let him know they were ready and they sped off towards the SHIELD base.

* * *

Natasha moaned with anguish as another contraction wreaked havoc on her body. It had been two hours since they arrived at the SHIELD medical bay and checked in. When they got Natasha into a room and hooked up to all of the machines, they checked her stats and the baby's and found her to only be a centimeter dilated. And that's how it had been for the past two hours.

"I'd rather get shot than endure this bullshit," she moaned as she clutched her pillow, her knuckles white as snow. Her back was currently facing Clint and he was rubbing her lower back to ease the pain. For Natasha, it wasn't really helping much but it still felt good.

Natasha felt the contraction fade out and she let out a deep breath, relieved that it was over for now. She took another deep breath before struggling to roll over to her other side to face Clint. When the contraction had started, she immediately flopped over to her other side so Clint didn't have to see her in so much pain. He'd seen her vulnerable and in pain before but not for something as feeble as childbirth.

"You're going to be fine, Nat," Clint said, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face.

"This all your fault," she said for the millionth time. For the past two hours, every time a contraction was finished, she always blamed Clint for putting her through this. He was the one who knocked her up. He was the one who convinced her not to terminate the pregnancy. He was the one who convinced her they could raise a child. He convinced her they could be a family. But currently, Natasha was extremely angry and bitter for letting him get her into this mess.

"It may be my fault but it will be worth it in the end," Clint said with a small smile.

At that moment, a nurse walked into the room to check Natasha and the baby's medical statistics. When she finished, she checked to see if Natasha had dilated anymore since they checked her an hour ago.

"Well, it looks like you're two centimeters dilated now, Agent Romanoff," the nurse said.

"Fantastic," Natasha grumbled.

The nurse silently exited the room, leaving Clint and Natasha alone once again. "At this rate, I'll practically be in labor a full day," Natasha moaned. "What the fuck are we going to do?"

"We never talked about middle names," Clint stated, shrugging his shoulders. It was the best he could think of to pass the time. It was true that they never thought of middle names for their soon-to-be-born child. Talking about it now seemed like the perfect moment.

"Okay, so what will Alice's middle name be?" Natasha said with a yawn.

Clint rattled off a couple names, including Marie, Isabella, and May, but Natasha made a face at all of them. She claimed that none of them fit with the name Alice so Clint racked his brain for a name that would hopefully fit.

"What about your middle name?" Clint suggested.

Natasha adjusted herself in the bed so that she could get into a more comfortable position, and sat in silence for a couple minutes. "Alice Alianovna," Natasha mused. "It has a nice ring to it. It's also quite a mouthful."

"But do you like it?" Clint asked nervously.

"I like it," she said with a small smile. "Now what about Alexander?"

"There's always my middle name," Clint suggested.

"Do we want him to be teased by Stark?" Natasha snapped. "I'm surprised Tony hasn't used your middle name against you yet."

"Alexander Francis," Clint said aloud. "Yeah, that doesn't really work together anyways."

It took them awhile to figure out Alexander's middle name. They listed off several different names and toyed around with how they sounded. Ultimately, they narrowed down their choices between Alexander Joseph and Alexander David. Alice was a very American name but her middle name would be very Russian, so Natasha figured that maybe they should flip-flop it for Alexander.

"We can keep the Russian theme," Clint said. "It doesn't matter to me. If you like Joseph better than David, then we can go with that."

"Are you sure you like Joseph better?" Natasha said, arching one of her eyebrows.

"It's okay with me if that's the one you prefer."

Natasha nodded. "Alexander Joseph. Alice Alianovna," she said aloud. She rolled over onto her back and closed her eyes. "Alexander Joseph Barton. Alice Alianovna Barton."

Clint looked at her in shock. He fully expected her to hyphenate their child's last name. Sure he and Natasha would be getting married after they had the baby, but as of right now, it made perfect sense for their child's last name to be Romanoff-Barton.

"Barton?" Clint asked.

Natasha's eyes opened and she turned her head to face Clint. "Yeah, Barton," she reiterated. "Why would we name them Romanoff-Barton when we're getting married later?"

"So does that mean you're taking my last name too?" Clint said excitedly.

"No," she said bluntly and then quickly rolled over to her other side to fight off another contraction.

* * *

Natasha was right. She had been in labor for almost a whole day. But after practically 20 hours, the doctors said she was dilated enough that she could push. Early on in labor, Natasha had whined about wanting an epidural. At the time, Natasha wasn't dilated enough and then when she finally was, she'd screamed at the nurses for thinking she was incapable of continuing in labor without the drugs.

It was almost four o'clock in the morning when the doctors invaded the room to help Natasha give birth. Both Natasha and Clint were exhausted and were ready to get this over with. Every time Natasha tried to fall asleep, a contraction would wake her up. Clint had a lot of chances to get some rest, and Natasha even insisted that he take a nap, but Clint figured it wasn't fair for him to get rest while Natasha couldn't. Therefore, Clint stayed awake by drinking copious amounts of coffee so he could stay awake with Natasha.

The doctors and nurses had stationed themselves around the two assassins, prepared to assist them in any way possible. Before they had begun, they handed Clint a pair of scrubs to keep the delivery room sterile.

As another contraction came around, the doctors ordered Natasha to push. Natasha grabbed Clint's hand and squeezed as hard as she possibly could. Clint was actually concerned that Natasha was cutting off the blood flow as he felt the numbness spread throughout his fingers. He knew she was channeling the pain by squeezing his hand as opposed to screaming but he was actually convinced he wouldn't have a hand after all of this.

After pushing and a couple breaks to take a breather, the doctors ordered Natasha to push one last time. Natasha grabbed Clint's hand one last time, squeezing as hard as she possibly could. As she pushed one last time, both she and Clint heard the ear-splitting wail of their child.

"Congratulations Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton, it's a girl!" the doctor announced.

The doctor gently held up their child so they could get a look at her. She was still covered in goo and she was still wailing at the top of her lungs but Natasha and Clint could see a little of themselves in her. No matter what, she was going to grow up to be a mini-Natasha with the tufts of red hair. She would no doubt grow into a pair of full red lips and her eyes would probably change to green, but she would no doubt have every bit of the persona of Clint.

"It's Alice, Clint. It's Alice," Natasha said breathlessly as she tapped him on the arm. Clint hadn't even realized Natasha had released her grip on him so he was surprised when she started tapping him on the arm. Clint turned to face Natasha and smile at her before leaning down to kiss her fully on the lips. Clint could feel the smile spreading across Natasha's face as he kissed her and Clint couldn't help but do the same.

"Here she is," one of the nurses announced as Clint and Natasha pulled away from each other. The nurse was holding Alice, all cleaned up and swaddled in a soft pink blanket. Natasha held out her arms as the nurse gently placed her in them, showing Natasha how to cradle the newborn.

The assassins sat in silence as they watched the newborn slowly drift off to sleep, her rosy lips forming an O as she yawned.

"I'm actually a little disappointed it's a girl now," Natasha said, not taking her eyes off of the sleeping newborn.

"Why?" Clint asked, his head resting on Natasha's shoulder with his eyes locked on his newborn daughter too.

"We went through all that trouble to pick out a middle name," Natasha said.

"There's always the next one," Clint mused.

"Easy Hawk. Keep it in your pants," Natasha said firmly. She continued to stare at the newborn for a few more seconds until she said to her daughter, "Daddy's being a little inappropriate, isn't he Alice?" The newborn child let out a snort which almost sounded close to a sneeze and both Clint and Natasha smiled at the baby.

"I love you," Clint said, planting a kiss on Natasha's cheek. "I love both of my girls."

Natasha smiled as she adjusted the blanket wrapped around their daughter then handed her off to Clint. "Take her while I go get cleaned up," Natasha said. As Natasha gently passed her off to Clint, he could see the heartbreak in Natasha's eyes as she had to separate from her daughter for the first time since holding her in her arms.

One of the nurses helped Natasha out of the bed while another rolled the bed out of the room and traded it for another with clean sheets. All the while, Clint stood in the corner with his newborn daughter cradled in his arms.

"You know, a couple months ago, I would've never been able to never hear your mommy's water break all of over the kitchen floor," he said to the sleeping newborn. "I know that's gross but we'll have that cleaned up before we take you home. But I would've never heard it. Even with my hearing aids in. I'm glad I got the surgery Alice, or I probably would've never reacted like I did. And now, I get to hear every little sound from you as you grow up."

The newborn squirmed in Clint's grasp and let out a small whimper. "Yeah," Clint said in agreement. "Sounds like that." Clint smiled at his daughter and watched her in her peaceful slumber. He knew this wouldn't last long. As soon as they took her home, she'd be wailing in the middle of the night for sure.

"Alright, give her back to me," Natasha ordered. Clint hadn't even heard her come back and he looked up to see her positioned comfortably on the bed. Now that she didn't have the extra weight around her midsection, Natasha was back to her stealth ways.

Clint walked over to the side of the bed and gently handed off their daughter to Natasha, being careful of her head and neck. When Natasha had their daughter cradled in her arms, she scooted over and looked down at the empty space and then at Clint as if to tell him to take a seat next to her.

Clint wrapped his arm around Natasha's shoulders and pulled her close, never breaking his gaze from his daughter. "We're finally a family," Clint said as a smile broke out across his face.

Natasha felt the edges of her lips pull up into a smile – and for the first time since laying eyes on her – pulled her eyes away from her daughter to look up at Clint. His eyes were just as happy and excited as hers were and she reached up to ever so lightly press her lips to his. Clint kissed her back with more effort, pecking her on the lips one more time once they broke away from each other.

"You should get some rest, Tasha. It's been a long day," Clint said.

"I'm fine," she said. "You should get some rest yourself since you'll be up every night with Alice here."

Clint groaned as he remembered the promise he made to Natasha.

"Don't bitch out on me now Hawk. We had a deal," Natasha said firmly.

"Yeah, we did. We still do," Clint said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "But sleep can wait."

"I suppose it could."

"Don't want to miss anything important."

"You've got a point there."

"Maybe in an hour."

"Or two."

"Let's make it three just to be safe."

The two assassins continued to sit in silence as they stared at the sleeping newborn. Occasionally she would make a strange noise in her slumber which would cause Natasha and Clint to smile. Usually Clint more than Natasha. He was just grateful that he was able to hear every sound that his daughter was making. It was moments like these he was glad that he had chosen to have the surgery. He didn't want to miss a thing.

* * *

**And so Alice Alianovna Barton was born! Hooray! There's only one more chapter left in this story so keep an eye out for the last one.**

**As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Therefore, review away! Let me know what you think of the birth (I hope that wasn't too detailed? haha) and Clint and Natasha immediately falling in love with Alice.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Alright you guys, here's the final chapter! I hope it isn't a let down. Enjoy!**

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Clint and Natasha found it extremely easy to care for Alice. She only woke up at least once during each night and it was very easy to lull her to sleep. Clint still got up with her in the middle of the night, but Natasha usually joined the father-daughter duo a couple minutes later, unable to sleep knowing that Clint was spending more time with their daughter than she was.

Sleep didn't come very often, but when they did have a chance, they slept when Alice was napping. Sometimes, Clint would lie on the couch with Alice resting on his chest and Natasha curled up at his side. Other times, they would build a pillow barricade around her in their king-sized bed so they didn't roll on top of her while they slept.

Natasha and Clint weren't in it alone though. There were the rest of the Avengers to aid in the care of Alice. Bruce would always be on hand if Alice were to ever get sick. Steve would always act as babysitter if absolutely needed. Thor was always there to make Alice smile with goofy faces and noises. And Tony? Well, Clint and Natasha made sure he stayed far away from their child so he didn't measure her for an infant Iron Man suit.

Pepper stopped by every day. She had fallen in love with Alice as if she were her own. Pepper would sometimes offer to babysit Alice so Clint and Natasha could get some sleep but they both insisted that the plan they had was working out well.

Pepper's constant help made Clint and Natasha realize that they didn't choose godparents for Alice. Once Alice was three months old, Natasha and Clint would have to return to the field. Fury had ordered that Natasha returned to the field following her maternity leave and Clint had been promised to be cleared to return to the field once final tests on his hearing had been run.

But what would happen to Alice if both of them were to die in the field? They couldn't just give up their partnership. Natasha wasn't going to let Clint go in the field by himself and have a repeat of the Shanghai mission. And Clint would never let Natasha go in the field alone either, even though he knew she was perfectly capable of handling things on her own.

However, Alice needed godparents. Clint and Natasha both figured Pepper was the perfect fit for the godmother. She already loved Alice to death and she was always trying to help Clint and Natasha in any way possible. There was no doubt that they wanted Pepper to be Alice's godmother.

However, when it came down to Alice's godfather, they didn't know who to ask. Tony was absolutely out of the question. Thor was in Asgard most of the time. Steve was still adjusting to the present day. Bruce could turn into the Other Guy at any moment. So the question was who exactly would be the best fit to be Alice's godfather?

Clint and Natasha talked it over one night as they lied in bed together with Alice fast asleep in between them. They were both propped up on their elbows with their heads resting in their hands, facing one another.

"There's always Fury," Clint suggested. Natasha snorted a laugh and then tried to stifle it as quickly as possible so as not to wake up Alice. She thought Clint was kidding until she saw the serious look on his face.

"You're serious? There probably isn't a fatherly bone in that man's body," Natasha said.

"But Tasha, think about it!" Clint exclaimed. "If something were to happen to us, Fury could provide the best security for Alice. Nothing would happen to her with Fury as her guardian!"

"Nothing's supposed to happen to _us_ Clint," Natasha hissed.

Clint sighed as he hung his head after Natasha's statement. Anything could go wrong during a mission. One of them could die or both of them could. In any case, someone would need to take care of Alice. As soon as they had brought Alice home, they immediately set up a secret account that, in the event that something happened to them, she would be able to afford anything she wanted for the rest of her life. Clothes. A car. A college education. A house. All they needed was someone to take care of her and manage that account for her until she turned eighteen.

Clint brushed a piece of hair out of Natasha's face and then cupped the side of her face with his hand. "I know nothing's supposed to happen to us, but in the event that something does, Alice needs someone to take care of her, and I think Fury would be our best option."

"We may be considered SHIELD's best assassins in Fury's eyes, but that doesn't mean he'd do something like this for us," Natasha sighed.

"Can we just ask him?" Clint begged. Natasha contemplated Clint's proposition. Fury actually was the best person to take care of Alice. Alice wouldn't get much love from Fury, but that's what Pepper and the rest of the Avengers would be for.

"And if he says no?" Natasha asked.

"If he says no, then we go back to the drawing board and start weighing the pros and cons of our teammates," Clint stated.

Natasha nodded. "Okay, then tomorrow. We'll ask him tomorrow."

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Their footsteps echoed as they walked down the hall of the deserted SHIELD base. Most of the SHIELD agents were either in the field or in the control room or command center at this time of day. Clint had called ahead to make sure that Fury would be free and they were currently heading toward his office.

When they reached the door, Clint gently rapped his knuckles on the door three times and waited for a response. They heard Fury order them to enter and they pushed open the door to step into the vast office. Fury was seated behind his desk with a tremendous amount of paperwork in front of him. No doubt one of the lesser known agents probably screwed up and Fury was currently working on cleaning up the mess.

"What exactly is so important that you have to interrupt my work?" the one-eyed director said, not looking up from the papers on his desk.

"We were wondering if you would be Alice's godfather," Clint blurted out. Natasha punched him in the arm – rather forcefully – and Clint replied with an "ow." Fury tossed his pen onto his desk and looked up at the two assassins with a blank disposition.

"You want me to be what?" Fury asked.

"We were wondering if you would be Alice's godfather," Clint repeated.

"Why the fuck are you asking me?" Fury asked.

"Well, if something were to happen to Natasha and I in the field, someone would need to take care of Alice. Pepper's already the godmother and she would initially be the person Alice would live with. But we figured you could provide safety and security for her and handle her finances."

Fury let out a deep breath as he contemplated Clint and Natasha's proposition. Clint and Natasha stared at him with eager eyes. "I guess so," Fury said. "But you better not fucking die on me _or_ your kid."

"Oh, well, maybe there is a fatherly bone in his body after all," Natasha muttered under her breath.

"What was that Agent Romanoff?" Fury asked quizzically.

"She was wondering if you'd marry us right now too," Clint blurted out.

"_I'm going to fucking murder you Barton!_" Natasha shrieked.

"What? You said we could get married after Alice was born. Well, she was born. A week ago if I might add, and since we're here and Fury has the power to wed us, we might as well," Clint said shrugging his shoulders.

Natasha glared at him, reducing her eyes to slits. "What?" Clint asked. "Don't tell me you actually wanted a big, lavish wedding. The Black Widow does not do that."

"No," Natasha said bluntly.

"You do, don't you?" Clint coaxed.

"No," she repeated.

"Am I going to marry you two idiots or not? I have a lot of work to do," Fury boomed.

"Fine," Natasha spat. "Just marry us."

Fury launched into his spiel about marriage and unionization. It wasn't your typical marriage ceremony but it would be legal. They would be married and that's all that mattered.

"Okay, you're married. Bother me another time to sign the papers, then I'll put it in the database," Fury said after Clint and Natasha had made their vows to one another. "Now leave me alone."

Clint and Natasha turned on their heels and stepped outside of Fury's office. When the door closed behind them with a _bang_ that echoed throughout the hall, Clint dipped Natasha and crushed his lips against hers. His right arm was looped behind her back while his left hand was tangled in her red curls. Natasha was caught off guard at first but she added as much force into the kiss as he did. She reached her hand up to cup his face and leaned in more to kiss him.

"Hi Mrs. Barton," Clint breathed when he pulled away from her, still supporting her weight from dipping her.

"_Don't_ call me that. I'm your wife now so you'll do as I say," Natasha demanded, arching one of her eyebrows.

"Think we should go home and tell Alice?" Clint asked.

"She's one week old Clint," Natasha countered.

"And that means we can't tell her and share it with her?"

Natasha sighed as she grabbed Clint's hand and dragged him down the hallway so they could return to Avengers Tower.

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"So Alice, Mommy and Daddy have some news for you," Natasha said as she cradled the newborn in her arms. Clint was standing behind Natasha with his chin resting on her shoulder and his arms wrapped around her waist. "We got married."

"You did what?" Pepper shrieked. They were still in Tony's penthouse and they couldn't wait to share the news with Alice that they just decided to tell her as soon as they picked her up. Unfortunately, that meant spilling the beans in front of Pepper.

"Yeah, we got married," Natasha said, not taking her eyes off of her daughter.

Pepper got off of the couch and approached Clint and Natasha. "And you just decided to not have any sort of ceremony?"

"Maybe at one point," Natasha said, her eyes still glued to the baby.

"Natasha was all for having a big ceremony," Clint mumbled.

"Was not," Natasha snapped.

"In any case, you are having some sort of celebration," Pepper ordered.

"Can we maybe talk about this later?" Natasha said, tearing her eyes away from Alice to look up at Pepper. "I just want to take Alice home."

Pepper sighed and then waved them off in a huff. Clint and Natasha strapped Alice into the carrier and then loaded onto the elevator to take them down to their apartment. By the time they reached their apartment, Alice was fast asleep. Natasha smiled down at her daughter as they took her into the nursery to place her into her crib.

When Alice was safe and sound in her crib, Clint and Natasha tip toed out of the room and headed over to their bedroom. They both flopped down onto their bed with sighs and then turned their heads towards one another.

"So this is married life," Clint said.

"I guess it is," Natasha agreed. "So what do we do now?"

"I can think of a couple things, one thing in particular…" Clint trailed off, arching one of his eyebrows in seduction.

"Are you kidding me? Alice is right next door," Natasha said angrily, pushing herself up onto her elbow.

"She won't even know what we're doing."

"It will wake her up, dumbass. If I remember correctly, neither one of us is remotely quiet when we screw," Natasha said matter-of-factly.

"Tasha, we just got married," Clint said, pushing himself up on his elbows as well.

Natasha rolled her eyes. He had a point, but they'd done everything backwards and out of order. Natasha got pregnant. Then they moved in together. Then they were engaged. Then they had the baby, and now, they were finally married. Did they really need to christen their marriage by sleeping together?

"We can work on baby number two," Clint said.

Natasha rolled her eyes again. "Just kiss me you idiot."

Clint smiled just as he crushed his lips to hers. He brought a hand up to cup her face and she pulled at the top of his shirt to pull him closer to her. She fell back against the bed and Clint straddled her.

The kiss was becoming more aggressive and more forced. Natasha tugged at Clint's shirt until he pulled it over his head and tossed it onto the floor. Natasha ran her fingers over the many scars on his chest, including the most recent gunshot scar from the Shanghai mission which was still very prominent on his skin.

She reached up to cup his face as he slowly undid the buttons on her shirt. She helped him pull it off of her by pushing herself up from the bed. Natasha suddenly felt self-conscious of how she looked. She'd had Alice only a week ago, and her body was most definitely not in shape. Her breasts were bigger and she was sure there were strange marks on her stomach. She quickly pulled away from Clint in nervousness and when he looked at her in confusion, she just rolled her eyes downwards as if to motion towards her stomach.

"Really Nat?" Clint said. "You think I care what your body looks like right now? I just want _you_."

Natasha was about to say something when Clint's lips crushed against hers again. He put more force behind the kiss. His lips left hers to trail kisses down her neck, her chest, and her stomach, lingering on the strange marks from her pregnancy. Natasha tangled her fingers into Clint's hair as his lips lingered on her stomach, causing her to moan with pleasure. Clint looked up and smirked at Natasha, and then brought his lips back to hers.

Natasha had just placed her fingers on the waistband of Clint's jeans when they heard Alice start to wail from the other room. They stared at each other with wide eyes until Natasha said, "You're daughter is already learning how to cock-block."

Clint snickered at Natasha's snide comment and then rolled off of her to sit on the edge of the bed to put his shirt back on. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and smirked at Clint as he struggled to pull his shirt back on. When he got up from the bed, Natasha grabbed his hand to pull him back towards her for one more kiss. Their lips connected and Natasha brought her hands up to cradle both sides of his face.

When their lips broke apart, Clint pulled Natasha up from the bed and handed her shirt to her. She quickly put it on and then he pulled her out of the room and into the nursery so they could tend to Alice together as a family.

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**And they lived happily ever after haha. I hope you guys liked the final chapter. For one last time, I would like to thank everyone for adding this to your favorites or signing up for alerts. I want to give a shout-out to all of my reviewers so here it goes: Ninja-on-the-run, Amber-Jade James, ArabianForest, PercyJacksontheAwesome, ellabella89, Nat-CatWoman, NiallerHoHo, discordchick, coastalcajun, clintasha fan, flarey phoenix, justafriend, Hecobiza, Mythomagic-Champion, PaigeD6, mellbell12123, Who Say's It's A Rebellion, Oakleaf, yolynnjones, Happy Pineapple, hopeisabluebird, cullenforevah, GyMusicAddict, Pati G W Black, the frozen cherry, LizzyCullen7, FinallyFallingAllOverAgain, HushLittleSleipnir, Mushroomking98, finnsgirl994, Avengersfan, Lightly-the-fockal123, Roses Near Rivers, hayjayjay, Mckeller-win, and Ironstar Gallifrey.**

**For those of you that are reading my new fic, _You Belong With Me_, I _have not_ started the next chapter so it most likely won't be up tonight like I promised. I will start it tonight and finish it tomorrow morning so that I can post it.**

**Once again, thank you so much for reading this story. It means so much to me that people actually like my writing. Thank you so, so much for the encouragement. I love you all!**


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